This story is a sequel to Sohndar
When Star Swirl the Bearded's wicked apprentices Cirrus and Archeon had ended their campaign of looting, murder, and destruction across the worlds Linked to Aitran Island, there were more intact books than were uncovered by Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. One of those books is I'strukun, the link to the first in a network of worlds intended to instruct Star Swirl's apprentices and daughter in the principles behind Writing links to other worlds. When Nyx insists she be allowed to take the lessons and Star Swirl admits his fear that Cirrus and Archeon may have caused great destruction to the worlds, Twilight and Spike accompany Nyx and take a look around.
Sequel to Aitran and Sohndar
Chapters (9)
And so, the journey begins. Only this time, Rainbow's being left out of the loop. Ah, well. Variety is the spice of life.
So, I'truskan is the name you've chosen for J'nanin, eh? I look forward to the misadventures that await!
Let the adventures begin! I look forward to how you adapt the worlds from Exile to fit with Twilight's adventures, especially Amateria, which is my personal favorite world from the Myst games that I've played.
Glorious.
YESSSsssssssssss...
That is all.
Oh wait.
Sneaky Spike is Sneaky
Out of curiosity, would it be possible for someone who had the right Linking Book to edit Equestria?
Ugh, I only wish my computer could actually play Exile... I really have to figure out how to get it to work!
Sneaky Spike is sneaky.
Damn. Sohndar made me hunt down Riven on Steam, and now you're making me track down the next one on Amazon before I can bear to read this.
Spotted a cut off sentence:
“Nyx, my little star,” Star Swirl said gently, “Even if you were ready, I don’t know if the Lesson Worlds are.”
I thought initially that Nyx had interrupted but the next line before she speaks has her 'staring in dumb shock'
So… I'm very puzzled. The linking book that was dropped down the star fissure was the one that ended up in the Royal Archives in the past and was eventually found by Twilight. The star fissure, apparently, goes to the modern day, and the book was found by Braeburn. Who then sends it to Twilight. No one even remarks upon the curious fact that this book will be traveling back in time sometime in the future.
However, new Aitran story! Yay!
2026407
You're confusing books. The one Twilight found back in Aitran was the one Star Swirl originally used to escape Sohndar after trapping Aldro there. The one Braeburn found was the one used to leave Sohndar after Twilight and Rainbow' adventure there.
There are some wonky timey-wimey things going on in relation to how quickly time moves in one world in relation to another (Thus far, Equestria seems to be moving a lot faster than any other observed world, which is something I'm sure will come back to bite me in some way...), but nothing has traveled into the past.
The really odd thing that nobody's commented on yet is that both Aitran linking books ended up in Equestria after falling through the Fissure. Theoretically, there are an infinite number of places they could have ended up, so the odds that both go to the same place are next closest thing to impossible.
2027232
Ah, yes, I've reread the relevant passage again, and I see that I was mistaken.
2027232 So, there are now three copies of Aitran in Equestria, counting the original, the seventh, and whichever copy it was that the group used to escape Sohndar/the Star Fissure. Am I right?
2031738
Aye
Not sure if gusta, but casting Savedro as Pinkie!Alter is brilliant.
Oh no! The dragon has been kidnapped by a ferocious damsel!
GREAT SCOTT!!
this is epic.
Well, if anything, this will discourage Twilight from letting Spike come on more adventures. If not discourage Spike himself.
And yeah, Nyx, Twilight may have agreed to let you take the lead when it comes to puzzle-solving, but dragon-napping is a whole different ball of yarn.
Hah! I have no idea what's coming, but those sound like famous last words.
Hmn, bat-winged Pinkie? Interesting.
whoa there freaky Pinkie xD
Aiya... Margent may be even more unstable than Saavedro was. That's scary to contemplate. Hopefully Spike will be okay...
Perhaps it's my imagination, but this chapter seems a little shorter than the first two. Then again, you never write 10,000-word chapters anyway.
So it randomly occurred to me to see if there was another story in this series up yet, and lo and behold! It yet lives.
This is absolutely the best. Everything seems right, especially Pinkie Pie as Saavedro. You can really hear the tenuous grip on reality in her dialogue that made Saavedro such a good antagonist. Congratulations, sir. You are truly a good writer.
2027232
Then again, the same was true of the Myst and D'ni books in Riven. How they, the telescope, and the Stranger all ended up in the New Mexico desert (if the expanded Cyan lore is to be believed) strikes me as being more than coincidence. Given what we see at the end of Riven, it would appear that the Star Fissure is relatively consistent in its 'weather' patterns (as Gehn describes them); hence, if Earth/D'ni and Riven were always exactly opposite one another, and the only force acting upon any object entering the Fissure was the momentum of their descent from the Age in question, it wouldn't be difficult to imagine their trajectories ending the same way. Quite a few assumptions to make, of course, but . . .
But here's a real stumper for you: would the Linking Book back to D'ni -- fully functional when Atrus uses it at the end of Riven -- have continued to work once it landed on Earth?
Either way, great work in particular on the description of the Fissure; the terrifying beauty and surreal peace of the place are never appreciated enough. I also liked the soporific effect it seemed to have on those entering it -- nice touch!
Please update this soon, it's very good!^_^
Hooray, it isn't dead!
Do you mean to still have it listed as "On Hiatus", though?
YAY I was soo looking forward for a new chapter of this story!!
time to dig into the adventure anew. :D
The Voltaic Age was pretty fun for me, but then I'm a sucker for steampunk tech (hence why I love Final Fantasy IX).
I wonder how they'll react to the fact that they need to use the power of LAVA to get through Wahteg...
Given psudo-Pinkie's speech at the end of chapter three, I'm a bit confused. Specifically with the line: "So, if you want to catch me, you’re going to have to take your own class!"
Now, in the original game, that made sense since crazy-nut thought he was luring Atrus into the age. But here, she mentions she's actually expecting Star Swirl's apprentices, or maybe Star Swirl.
So, given that... it's not Twilight's class. She didn't design it.
You know, the names for ages in Myst, I always assumed were based on either english (Channelwood, Mechanical, Stoneship), the language of the occupants (Riven) or D'ni (everything else).
In that spirit, where did Star Swirl come up with the names?
3343824
The message was recorded before anypony actually showed up and was meant primarily for Star Swirl's ears. Also, it's less specific about what Margent is holding hostage because she didn't know what she'd be taking at the time.
And I don't know if I'll ever have a good explanation for how Star Swirl names his Ages. Myself, I mostly just pun around with words and sounds similar to the Age names from Myst.
3344059
She says, in that message, that she's expecting Star Swirl's apprentices.
3337601
Yeah, that was fucked. Don't worry, it's video game lava. Being near it wouldn't harm you, even though it should. Diffusion is a myth!
Actually, on that note, I can't wait to see her reaction to the ball-ride puzzle.
Twilight: AAAHHHHHAHHHHAHHHHHAAAAHHHHHH!!!
Nyx: Twilight, the ride ended five minutes ago, relax.
Twilight: AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!
I find it funny that those ages, designed by Atrus, were the ones he created for his sons, to educate them. Cause they're not health and safety. None of them are.
2015128
They'd need Equestria's descriptive book, which doesn't really exist. I think its one of the few ages/illusions that exists independent of any books. Much like Garternay in the Myst canon.
Am I right Vulpin?
3346830 I'm curious as to whether Margent left those same recordings that Saavedro did.
Also curious as to how differently the confrontation in Naborale will go.
3346852
To my understanding, and as far as Star Swirl's and Aldro's version of Linking is concerned, the first book that links to a specific world is that world's Descriptive Book. Since Descriptive Books ordinarily describe only small regions, a lot of worlds tend to be isolated islands, and if they link to a world like Equestria or D'Ni/Earth they technically only link to a specific location within the larger world. This is why there are books linking to Kveer (Where Atrus was trapped during Myst), Tohmana, the Cleft, and areas of the ruined D'Ni city in Uru, even though all those places are in one world.
So, an Equestria Descriptive Book exists: the book on Aitran Island that links to Canterlot.
As to editing, there's a fine line between altering the world and linking to another world entirely. Things like making a sailing ship appear in Stoneship seem to be legal alterations, so I assume that creating things that could be built by hand won't change the link, but trying to mess with the landscape or (heaven forbid) adding or removing people will result in the link going to a similar but different world. So, I suppose one could do something like repaint Canterlot Castle or make a statue suddenly appear out of thin air, but if they were to try and erase Canterlot from existence, they'd just go to a different, Canterlot-free version of Equestria and our Equestria wouldn't be affected.
3346990
If so, I assume Nyx's reaction would be the same as mine. She shoots the screen and walks away saying, "She talks too much."
3347232
I always assumed the whole, rewrite-the-descriptive-book thing was hit-or-miss with regards to altering the world or breaking the link. If I remember correctly, there was one age that Ghen wrote, that was surrounded by fog. He made some changes and that removed the fog, but caused a chain reaction that would have destroyed the age eventually. So he undid his alterations, and it broke the link, so the kid Atrus made friends with didn't remember him.
It might have had something to do with the presence of a link traveller within the age, however.
Also, linking books are actually quite different. A descriptive book creates an age, the linking book is... well... different. For starters, you write a linking book within the age you're supposed to connect to, at the position you want them to link-in at. You also can't link within the same age. So you have to leave and come back. Unless you're in Relto, for some bizarre reason.
And the linking books connect to the descriptive book. So if you break the link on the descriptive book, the linking books will carry with them.
But what you're saying about descriptive books is quite incredible... and quite dangerous, when you think about it.
3366405 Well, none of the Ages that Ghen wrote descriptive books for were ever really stable. The most notable instance is Riven, his 5th age, which started out as one big island nation. But since the descriptive book was flawed (in some way, it's never made clear how), the island eventually broke up into the formation it's in when you visit Riven in the game. Given Riven's status, it doesn't surprise me that Ghen destroyed another age inadvertantly.
I can't help but wonder, however: are the books for Stoneship, Channelwood, Mechanical, and Selentic that you find in the first game their descriptive books, or just linking books?
3366405
Yes, linking books do differ from the descriptive books, which is a result of them being produced after the descriptive book. Descriptive Books can contain links though. In Riven, you enter the Age through the book Atrus is writing his "stability patches" into to give you time to do your thing.
Also, keep in mind I have very limited knowledge of things that happened outside the games, I'm striving to maintain better continuity than the games did, and I'm freely changing stuff around to suit ponies better.
3366641
I'm inclined to think the four Ages of Myst are accessed through their descriptive books. Sirrus and Achenar's destruction of the library wouldn't have been so devastating if they'd merely burnt later-generation Linking Books.
3366641
Yeah, but I think the rules of operation still applied to him.
I think the ones on Myst Island were the proper descriptive books, since Atrus was trying to protect them. After all, destroy a linking book, no big deal. Destroy a descriptive book, you're fucked.
3367060
Yeah, a descriptive book is, functionally a linking book. The only difference is a descriptive book in the primary link, and a linking book is a book that connects to the descriptive book. You can't write multiple descriptive books to the same age, and if you try you'll just end up with copies of the age in it's original state, before anyone linked there. So you have to use linking books to connect to the descriptive books, which connect to the age.
Does that make sense? Yes it does.
Great to see that this isn't dead, but this chapter feels... kind of rushed, to be honest.
4348046
I think that's partly due to the Lesson Ages having a lot more to do in it than the Ages of Myst or Riven's islands and me still trying to stuff it all in to a single chapter per Age, partly because Twilight and Nyx's relationship isn't as strong as Twilight and Rainbow's yet, so their conversations are kinda stilted, and partly me not feeling as strongly about this story as the previous ones.
I've at least identified some areas I need to try and improve going forward.
great to see you back
It's alive!
Yay!
I enjoyed the first two stories because I enjoyed the first two games. I never played three to five so now I'm completely lost.