Are you thinking of making this a 3 part? Like the Atrus, Ti'ana, and D'ni books?

happy to see this continuing!

YES, AITRAN STORY 2.

I just got done replaying Riven the other day, taking advantage of the sale on Cyan games GOG was running. I'm ready for this.

Oh yeah! The next chapter in the Aitran series. Looking forward to this!

Nice work so far. I'm kinda sad, though...I was kinda hoping that the masked pony you mentioned was a griffon...at least, that's how I imagined this character being. Still, this is looking good.

Yay! Another one! This is a great day!

[Technically spoilers, I guess]

It's named 'Sohndar' because it's been sundered, isn't it. Clever.

>>296738296738

Well done.  The game's called "Riven" for a reason after all

Oh yes I've been waiting for this. I literally finished Riven 4 hours before I found this story and still have my notepad sitting next to my computer.

So, quick question. How much like a Diamond Dog does Aldro look like? Is he canine or was that just used to describe his bone structure?

Hey, Vulpin, seems like Star Swirl's time control concept is somewhat canon with the recent tidbit from the Hub with the new clip of the coming episode.

Oh, I bet Twilight's going to have fun with the water mechanic.

I actually just found out that my dad has the Myst soundtrack. He played and beat the game and said it was one of the hardest games he's ever played.

So happy you're writing this. I'm looking forward to reading more.

Lehnah biv kehnehn tehnehsh ehrthbantee meh keelehntee, roob rehkeelehn fahehts kehnehn tehn ril’tsahn.

("Every journey is simply a series of steps, but the first step is not always simple," for those who don't remember their D'ni.)

I am glad to see you back in the art, bro.

Yay for adventure.

>>294463294463

This series is based off of the games, rather than the books. As such, this could very well be a five part story.

Now if you'll excuse me, I still need to read the first part. Tootles! .

>>386028386028

five? if he used Uru as well, it could easily be a 6 book series... heck maybe it could even give Uru something better than what it can out to be as a game.

No matter... I can't wait for more of these.

>>386615386615

Uru was an MMO, so I'm not sure it counts. Admittedly, it DID have a SP component, but I am fairly sure that it is a different person than the main persona from the numbered entries in the franchise.

>>386634386634

True, but I only played the SP part, and I particularly loved the flowing of the game instead of the stop-frame animation. That gave me something a bit more to interact with you know?

What's more... the bookworlds of that game we fun. I loved the security realm.

>>386028386028

>>386615386615

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. I still have to get through this adventure first.

Right now, I can easily see stretching this out to the events of Myst IV.  Myst V and Uru deal more with the ancient D'Ni civilization, and Star Swirl's family has no direct connections to its "pony" counterpart and thus not much to gain from delving into its history.  Besides, I've played Uru's single player a total of one time, not counting the expansions, and Myst V not at all.

Of course, who knows what I'll discover about Aldro's past and people as I write this story...

>>386737386737

Hey it's at those points that you get to have fun and twist the story to your own form. I know what you mean by not playing End of Ages though... I haven't played it and I admit my memories of Uru are a bit foggy... but much less so than Riven. Myst and Exile are ingrained into my mind though.

What I mean to say is... I'm reading blind of the history. Not the best thing for a crossover... but then again not the worst.

Just write what you want Vulpin... I suppose we readers can't ask for anything more can we?

>>386750386750

Indeed

>>386615386615

URU was an unrelated spin-off from the series. The only thing it did was create a slight bridge between Myst 4 and 5, describing how the Bahro came to be, how the DRC tried to restore D'ni and eventually quit when they considered it pointless, and how Yeesha came into power. Other than that, it was unrelated to the main storyline.

Also, nice work on giving Aldro's followers more roles in your story. I hope Twilight and Dash confront more of them, since I imagine Aldro having his own army, (Well...army of sorts,) throughout this Illusion, and they really needed more emphasis of their existence than what the original game gave them.

I wonder what kind of experience Riven would become if some people were randomly messing up the switches behind the protagonist. If the matrix was reset after the domes had become powered, it would be absolutely bad. Someone removing the ladders and driving the submarine away? Really bad. Great that the guards weren't so evil.

So here, the guards are more threatening. This is realistic. On the other hoof, this can effectively prevent the outsiders from enjoying the scenery (because some guards are working against them)... Which can be bad if links to Sohndar get destroyed later. Just why can't Star Swirl make a backup copy

>>ConsciousHaze196

Remember, Star Swirl is using this realm as Aldro's prison. He deliberately removed all external departure points from the realm too keep Aldro there, and went so far as to purge the realm of the materials needed to write a linking book as well.

Don't get me wrong... if the Aldro problem gets resolved then I can bet that Star Swirl will be making more copies of the linking books too it... it's not a bad place scenery wise (though I wouldn't say it can match up to the later realms... that's graphics for you).

Twilight saw the smile, came over and looked at the image, and shook her head in amazement.  “How do you notice these things?” she asked.

“Dunno,” the pegasus said with a shrug, “Maybe I’m just lucky.

This is my whole damn Riven experience.

oh my god, Myst and ponies?? Definitely checking this one out.

Riven was my favorite game growing up, even if i had no idea what do do

Yay more! hmmm... a useless guard eh? Sounds suspicious.

Hmm...well, if nothing else, your stories are the second-best fics I've ever seen that followed the Myst games, and certainly the best crossover. Well done sir. I like the bits of artistic license you're throwing in as well.

Also, the things that pony says when he sees Twilight teleport are a nice nod to all us Myst/Riven fans (we all know what I'm talking about, and we know why that villager panicked )

reading this story is bringing back fond memories of the long hours i spent trying to figure this game out. another great chapter

Nicely done so far; I'm remembering how all these places looked to me the first time through.

I also like your solution to the submarine problem: Twilight's teleport spell. That submarine puzzle frustrated me to no end, mostly because I was asking the same question Rainbow Dash was: why in the hay didn't they use bridges?

>>543816543816

My issue for the story was more that the sub's a single-occupant vehicle, and yet it's the only way besides swimming to get to the school-house.  And there may or may not be a Whark swimming in that water.   Plus I decided to give RD a little relief from the near-constant claustrophobia I've been putting her through.

Riven's a more realistic "People could actually live here" world compared to Myst's Ages, but you still get a few head-scratchers like that sub...

I was wondering when the next chapter would be up. Nice work.

>>389365389365

Yeah, only there's a problem with that. The world is naturally unstable due to the writing itself being unstable. No matter what you do to fix it, it's either going to remain unstable, or it's going to link to a different world altogether. In other words, the world is doomed, nothing can save it, all who stay on it will die, unless an escape route is opened, which is not an option at this point.

Edit: Correction, the world is just naturally unstable. The Descriptive Book to it found the link to it based on the descriptions the book had and chose the closest match to them, which in this case would be Sohndar. Sadly, because the world is naturally unstable, that makes the link to it unstable as well because the original descriptions were tampered with, or the wording does not flow properly like a Descriptive Book should.

>>542110542110 Maybe it was more of an honorary position, and he's never actually had to deal with anything.

*Just so you know, Aitran and Sohndar and so good, that I've created an account just to comment on this story.*

At the moment, all I can say is that Twilight is a cheater. And the addition of the guards into the story was a great touch; it brings so much more interaction, and truly gives the feel that the Stranger/the 'Mane'ger needs to hurry up before the Age collapses, or Gehn/Aldro finds them. The fact that most people spend anywhere from a week to a couple years trying to get off the islands kind of loosing the sense of urgency. The constant Maintainer presence reinforces that.

Incidentally, although you have artistic license, I thought you may want to know that the creatures are named Wahrks, not Wharks. The latter is used in one of Gehn's journals, but was chalked up to a typo on Gehn's part by Cyan, I believe.

Keep up the good work, I CAN'T WAIT to read more!

Evil. Just evil. You cliffed us at an amazing point.

This chapter was a bit short, but then, you have had writer's block. I forgive you, Vulpin.

Good thing the machine's not on... normally. Unless there's a guard waiting to start the wood-chipper...

Heehee.  I felt exactly how Twi did when I realized the fish game could teach me the numeric system.

It was kind of funny, because even though I inferred the decimal rotation for the domes, I didn't make the connection that the horizontal line for 5-9 was rotating a 1 the other way for higher digits until after I completed the game, because nothing higher than 9 was ever actually relevant.

is always a long wait for each chapter, but ... man, the wait is worth it

excellent chapter

ARRG EPIC CLIFF HANGER AT MY FAVORITE ISLAND

Aw man, riven was my favourite of the Myst games! Favouriting and digging out my old copy of Riven to play.

>>771261771261 Except when you're trying to get into the fire marble domes, and you need to decipher Gehn's passcode. I remember noticing that the lines in 1 and 6, 2 and 7, etc. were the same, and that the horizontal line added 5, but I because 1 and 5 were just lines, I never made the connection that one was the other rotated. I'm sure if that if 1 had been, say, the symbol for 2, then I would've realized that there was a rotation, but a single line is simple enough that I didn't realize. Silly D'ni.

Also, NEW CHAPTER! I'd like to think that my encouraging comment last night brought this about, as this is the first new chapter in a month and a half, but either way, this is very exciting! When I saw the update symbol, and I realized that all of my other favourited stories were complete, I was like "Soooohndar!!!" I'm glad that our Little Ponies have made it to Crater/Boiler Island. I was excited to read the ponies' reactions to the mine cart tunnel, as travelling it for the first time is one of the most breath-taking moments of the game. I'm surprised that Twilight's not "Lesson Zero"-ing right now, but I'm sure she'll be glad when she finds out there's a rational explanation.

Keep up the good work!

PS: I'm curious as to how long Twilight's going to be trapped on the balcony before Rainbow finds the hidden doors. :)

>>771665771665

You're never trapped on the balcony because the man(pony?)hole covering the ladder down opens from the top.

Still, it took me an entire week to realize there were hidden doors in there.  In hindsight, it was one of the only two places in the game I was completely stuck for more than an hour or two.  Not my proudest moment

>>771740771740 Yeah, I didn't really mean trapped, but rather unable to move forward. At least if you were trapped, you'd know that you had to be able to do something there. If you're free, you don't know if there's something to solve, or if there's something that needs to be done or unlocked somewhere else first.

>>771740771740

GOD DAMN THOSE DOORS!!!

I decided to marathon Aitran just so I could read this... I was not dissapointed

(Best piece of myst fiction I've ever read)

Well time to start on this bad boy :3

Are they solving everything on first encounter? Star Swirl should be proud.

Yes, the biggest puzzle in Riven is... installing it, but I believe the third island still requires about three passes to reach the vehicle...  that if tube navigation is physically possible.

Holy crap, things are heating up.

Dear lord! I can't tell you how many times I went through that tunnel, and never saw that frog. I felt so stupid when I finally noticed it

>>772560772560

The Steam version has an even more obscure "puzzle".  You have to ctrl-alt-del into Task Manager every time you open the game and click off all but one CPU or it locks up every few minutes trying to multiprocess.

If you look closely at the video as you are going down the chute. You can see that the wood chipper is on at the time, but then the scene ends with your character standing on the chipper while it is off.

>>776815776815

Oh, is that why the game freezes?  It bugs me, but I've never been bothered enough to search out the reason...  Of course, I'm only playing it in short spurts lately so it's less of a problem

>>777820777820

BAM.

The Cyan guy suggested putting an /affinity call into the Launch Options to do it automatically, but it didn't take when I tried it and I just wound up doing it manually every time.  You might want to go ahead and do it as a precaution, because when it was freezing on me it got to the point where it'd do it while saving and corrupt my file.

Hmm...still not too bad, but a piece of advice to consider for future chapters: Twilight and Rainbow have more options available to them when it comes to puzzle solving than the Stranger did. Instead of coming up with reasons why they can't use those options, why not have them "cheat" a bit? After all, this is a fanfic, not a walkthrough.

>>797108797108 But they do cheat. They cheat incessantly. That's what's so infuriating, is that Twilight can teleport, and even in Aitran, Dash could fly everywhere, and they could work on multiple problems at a time. Can you imagine what you could do in Myst games being in two places at once? Look at how fast the pentagon room went!

>>854598854598 The room rotations aren't really that difficult a puzzle, and their "cheating" didn't even cause them to deviate from the expected path of the Stranger in Riven. I would call that a shortcut, or a timesaver, but not cheating. Cheating would be magicking in new doors so that they could access all five paths without needing to rotate the room, or gaining the ability to access one of the paths that is blocked that isn't supposed to be open until much later in the game. As I said before, the parts of these stories that I enjoy most are the ones that DON'T have a counterpart in the actual games.

>>856215856215 I do agree with you there. The deviations are what separate this from an LP, and that's what gives life and flavour to a story.

Also, (sorry for double posting) I realize that you are probably very busy with the Order-naries stor(y/ies) considering how much attention they seem to be getting as of late. Do you know, however, when me might see the next chapter of Sohndar?

>>870767870767

It'll come when it comes.

>>872129872129 Alright, I'll take that. Thanks!

Woohoo! *Tries to read, but looks at clock*

Yeah, 2:36 AM is not a good time to try to read future chapters if I wanna figure out puzzles! XD I'll bb on the morrow! ALLONS-Y!

I gasped in delight upon seeing this update! I was just thinking about it today!

YAY! Update!

And yay! Interaction with an NPC! Kudos on you, Vulpin!

I'm glad you kept the name of the Moeity the same. And some of the Moeity have wings? Interesting...

>>973472973472

No, it's only because (I'm fairly sure) the word "moiety" refers to something akin to dark spirits or demons, so the guard think Rainbow's a literal moiety and Twilight's either one as well or part of the rebel group.

yay! finally an update

>>973638973638

I think it was both the name of the rebel group AND the word for spirit. But hey, this is YOUR story

Now THIS is what I'm talking about, THIS is cheating! Capture of a guard, a translation spell, and quick access to the lab are ALL things that couldn't have been done in the actual game, and make the story more interesting (even if the guard's exposition dump was rather dry). I do have a bit of a hard time believing that a lowly guard would know all those things about the domes, but for the sake of encouraging you to do more deviations and cheating, I'll let that slide as part of "suspension of disbelief" and hope you do something later to explain how he's so well-informed. Overall, great job, and I look forward to the next chapter!

i admit i have never played the game that this is based off of but i find this story and the one before it quite amazing i can't wait to see how they turn the guard over to their side if that is whats going to happen that is... oh and btw i truely think that if they had pinkie pie there she would be able to understand what everypony is saying as well as find her own way back to the "real" world.

“The doors block the exit when they’re open,”

And when I played through, I'm embarrassed to say this was the single most effective security system in the entire game.

>>985426985426

I think that when I went to replay Riven after getting it on Steam those doors got me stuck for a bit as well.

>>985426985426

Yeah, they're definitely one of the stupidest hard puzzles in the game. Funniest part in my experience, though, is that when I was first playing it with my dad and uncle, my uncle figured out the first set of doors, then totally failed to catch the same trick at the bottom of the stairs where the Firemarble Dome and its rotoscope are.

>>989839989839

I can at least proudly say I was wise to it when they pulled it a second time downstairs from the first one.

Still though.  Figured out the numeric system, the Moiety combination, the frigging fire press...but got stuck for a week because yo dawg I herd you like doors.

>>985457985457 Wait a sec...how are you getting Riven to run? Is the Steam version easier to get working than the 10th anniversary edition, did it take a ton of configuration before it became playable, or did you play it on an old computer that wasn't as susceptible to backwards compatibility issues?

>>997191997191

The Steam version just seems to work better, although it does occasionally freeze.

Another amazing chapter.  I have to say, at first I was skeptical about reading this series.  I had never heard of Myst, and thought of the cross-over to be weird and/or stupid.  Wow, am I glad I was completely wrong.  Thank you for introducing me to the Myst series!

>>10022651002265

I love how these fics are having that effect on people

Eeee, it updated! Fun read as always.

UPDATE!

yay update -huggles- ooh i wonder what he was doing with it... and arcrem seem like a real pain in the flank i can so see him being there when Aldro reveals to twi and dash his plans, like mostg evil villians do.

Whark Bait.  Wow.  

So they're about to hit the key parts of the fire press.  Would you believe I actually figured that one out on my own, despite botching considerably easier things?

Furthermore, now that Arcem's escaped, raised the alarm, and knows that Twilight's got the dome code, the Golden Dome is going to be a damned fortress.  Unless Whark Bait spills the beans, she'll have to figure out the most infamously obscure puzzle in the series while under attack.

First thing I thought when I saw the title was:

"SONTAR-HA! SONTAR-HA!"

Now the Jungle island is dangerous, that's sad.

Also, the Fissure. Even if Arcem doesn't know what can happen, he has a serious reason to hinder them.

Oh crap, you finished Aitran and I had no idea! :O I gotta catch up on that!

YES FINALLY!! so much nostalgia from reading this

Whark Bait WHO HA HA!!

Ah.  Really good, as always.  I assume this story follows the game fairly well, correct?  I can't tell... I can't seem to get Riven to work on my computer...

>>13371011337101

Yes, thank you for making the fairly obvious joke.

>>13387461338746 no problem buddy

It's not dead!  Hooray!

Heh, "Whark Bait". Amusingly dickish Dash is best dickish Dash.

So, with infinite worlds available, it just so happens that Aldro and Starswirl end up writing a link to the same Age?  I...don't think that makes sense.  I guess it's like Sliders isn't it?  But it didn't make sense then either!!!

Celestia does know the rest of the elements won't work without Rainbow and Twilight anyway, right?

How do they know where North is on Sohndar?

I'd like to point out that the natives of Sohndar probably haven't seen a teleportation spell before.

I'm not sure I like that they cheated using teleportation.  I thought teleportation would put too much of a strain on Twilight, like on Aitran.

"'That’s great and all, but you can just translate any other numbers we come across, ok?  I don’t really need to know the details.'"

Oh yeah Rainbow?  What happens if you get separated!?

I think you missed an opportunity here between Twilight and Arcem.

Twilight: Can I ask you a personal question?

Arcem: I'm not gonna stop you.

Twilight: Do you really think that Aldro created this world?

Arcem: Of course, and your lies won't convince me otherwise.

Twilight: Fine, I'm not gonna argue because I don't know...but...do you really think he's worth worshiping?

Arcem: He created our world, without him we wouldn't exist!

Twilight: Fine, but if you had his power, if you could create worlds as easily as he can, by just writing in a book, would you use that power to rule over ponies and demand their worship?

Arcem: We were created to serve him!

Twilight: That may be what he intended, but you have freewill, you can disagree, if you were merely meant to serve him, why not create mindless automatons?

Arcem: I can't understand his wisdom.

Twilight: Oh, I think you can.  You're a smart pony, and I have no doubt you're as smart as him.

Arcem: Flattery won't get me to agree with you.

Twilight: I'm not asking you to agree with me, I'm just asking you to think about it.

I could probably go on, but you get the idea.

Why does Whark Bait understand them?  He wasn't hit by the language spell.  I think he's part of the Moiety, and was taught by Starswirl or Clover.  Or maybe he's Aldro's apprentice.  OOOO.....  This could get interesting.

>>13753801375380

The language spell goes both ways, letting Twi and Rainbow understand the Sohndar language and the natives understand them.

So why did they need to use the spell on Arcem?

>>13757321375732

The spell needed a Sohndar-speaking pony to get an "imprint" of the language from.  It's not a spell for a specific language, but rather a spell for removing the language barrier between groups.

If you wonder why I didn't explain this in the narrative, it's because nopony has felt the need to ask about or explain the details.

>>13757951375795

Good old reply to all questions like that. You never asked.

Wait, were you actually able of noting the symbol at this one dome? I can't recall it and I just finished the game... I simply started a freaking guess work at the Main Dome and finally got it after a while. It's only 3 unnoted symbols you know... only 9 possible combos.

Oh, and those doors back on the Crater Island? Got me stuck there for like 10 minutes until I was like: Hey, let's close them from the inside for lolz!

And after that... shame on me... I actually lost an hour to figure THE FREAKING SAME TRICK WITH THE DOOR DOWN THERE AT THE DOME!

The easiest trick possible. You won't think they used that twice...

And the dome numbers? Mine was 3 12 13 21 23 and I didn't even noticed that 10 is rotated 2 and 20 is rotated 4. I was just like: hey, that thing looks like 10 and 2 put together, it's 12! Oh, and that... well not 10 + 1... I know! It's obvious that's 20! I am so smart! S M R T!

Then came the Main Dome riddle... yeah, that took some time... and some help... DONT KILL ME!!! I WANTED TO KNOW HOW IT ENDS AND DIDN'T HAVE TIME FOR PLAYING!!! And really? I was dumb... I never actually realised that symbols on domes were of any relevance... yeah, after looking this one bit of info, it was quite easy to piece out the rest. Even more so that I liked the map thingy and spent a lot of time playing with it. I was like: Why didn't I see this? Those domes are on the freaking map for goodness sake!!

Anyhow, can't wait for the next chapter!

Keep up the good work!

>>14245471424547

Yeah, the biggest obstacle with the Fire Marble puzzle is figuring out where and what the clues are in the first place

I'd make a bigger rant about it, but I'm saving it for in-story use

I wonder if Twilight will remember she can teleport.  From what I recall of the world of Riven, there are no small number of places that would only really be accessible via teleport, but even if she can get herself and Whark Bait off the paths, they stand a much better chance of not being caught.

And that's why he's called cliffhanger!

Taking an entirely different approach here. Ah, a shame. I wanted to see their reactions to that Whark in the underground/water control room.