Rainbow Dash still felt the beating of her own heart as she sailed among the clouds. Below her the numerous islands of Myst laid. She spotted the temple where she got her first book page, a dry island with only the occasional tree patch. She spotted the swamp island that had the annoying water puzzle, the same island also having a bunch of towering rock spikes and a swampy lake surrounded by cliffs. She looked back at the village island behind her. It was dense with thick forest’s and sparkled with glowing plants. Rainbow Dash wailed her head and caught sight of the huge golden bowl that covered up its own island entirely. She wondered what awaited inside that thing.
She could still remember that old man that she saw inside the storage hut. She remembered his military uniform having the biggest buttons that she had ever seen. She remembered the bald top of his head with only a patch of hair at the sides. She remembers the man’s voice. Even though she wasn’t Rarity, her Ponyville unicorn friend that was way better on judging character than her, Rainbow Dash was sure that she recalled none other than the voice of evil himself, a voice cold and devoid of empathy, and the worst part was that she knew to whom that cold voice belonged to. It belonged to Gehn.
Atrus was right. His father had been set free on the islands, and he was looking for the Book Of Eternity. Rainbow Dash still didn’t know what exactly the book of eternity was. She scolded herself for not asking Atrus way earlier. Still, without knowing what it was, after everything the humans involved had gone through to get to it, Rainbow Dash had a feeling that she should keep Gehn away from it. As for her Ponyville friends they would have to wait, Atrus was her friend now, and Rainbow Dash never left her friends hanging. This was Atrus fight, and that made it her fight as well.
"I don't know what she's doing now..." She heard Atrus voice inside the Myst book.
Rainbow Dash landed on a cloud. She brought up the Myst book.
"Atrus?"
"Rainbow Dash, I would like you to meet my wife, Catherine."
A human woman came into view inside the transmission window. By the look of her she seemed to be of another ethnicity than Atrus. Her dark hair hanged down from the sides of her head. Her eyes were big and her voice had an accent foreign to the one of Atrus. She immediately threw herself into Atrus chair and spoke with conviction.
“Listen Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry we’ll have to make our introductions short, but it’s imperative that you make your way to that golden dome island and retrieve the book of eternity right now.”
“It’s too dangerous Catherine, she’ll be better off having the last page before risking it.” Atrus argued.
“But there’s no time.” Catherine replied her husband.
“There is time. Gehns men will never figure out how to get to it, but with your help Rainbow Dash will have no troubles.”
A raspy voice broke in.
“Hello! Sorry to interrupt your family meeting, but can somepony please tell me what in the name of Celestia the Book Of Eternity is?”
Catherine and Atrus looked and nodded at each other. Atrus kissed her.
“I’ll be inside the library.” He said and walked out of the room. Catherine seemed to look after him before turning to Rainbow Dash inside the book.
“The Book Of Eternity is a special book that is said to have the power of linking its reader to any age. Unlike other linking books that stays in the age that the reader links from this powerful D’ni artifact allows the reader to take it wherever he links.”
Catherine looked over her shoulders, as if making sure that nobody was listening.
“Listen Rainbow Dash, I’ll help you get to the other pages, but after that we really have to make sure that the Book Of Eternity does not fall into Gehns hands. If it does he will use it to invade all the ages within his imagination and enslave its populations, just like he enslaved my people in Riven.”
Rainbow Dash liked the spirit of Catherine.
“Consider it done lady!” She saluted.
“Good. Together we will make this quick. Now, can you see the island with the rocky mountains and pipelines?”
Rainbow Dash already knew which island Catherine meant. As a Wonderbolt trained flyer she memorized everything that she saw from the sky. She made a downward spiral. She landed on a rocky outcropping. Below her she spotted a round metal construction with pipes connected to it. A lake widened beside it.
“Do you see the steam building?” Catherine asked.
“Is that what that thing is?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Yes. You need to turn off the heat and drain it from water, that way you will be able to enter its main pipe. That should take you to the train station.”
“Train station? Can’t I just use my wings?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, remembering with horror the half hour she spent listening to a hose sucking up water instead of simply flying to the page.
“This is not that kind of train, this Is an underwater train. It leads to an underwater base that is sealed off from above.”
“Oh. Right.”
Catherine guided Rainbow Dash to turn off the heat before draining the boiler of water and raising the catwalk inside. It was a process that required Rainbow Dash to move back and forth between valves both outside the boiler and in the middle of the lake at the end of docking bridge. It felt so simple when Catherine told her what to do. Rainbow Dash could easily imagine herself galloping back and forth for a while without her help. Once inside the boiler she entered a large pipe that ran down underneath. Darkness engulfed her.
“I can’t see a ting in here.”
“Hold up the Myst book.” Catherine instructed. Rainbow Dash did as she told. Catherine shone a lamp light at her end, causing it to illuminate the pipe at Rainbow Dash’s end. Her hooves sent metallic echoes along the pipe, still dense with the warmth from the hot water.
“You should see a valve soon to your left.” Catherine said.
Rainbow Dash spotted a red valve. Her tongue hanged out of her mouth as she used all her strength to pull it. It opened a hatch that lead out of the pipe into a maintenance area.
“This is one of the areas where the steam is currently being used. You will now close the hatch after exiting, unlock the backdoor of this station, fly back to the boiler and restart it again. That should allow you to use the train in here.
“Thanks Catherine. How come you know more about this place than Atrus does?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Atrus may have written many of the islands foundations, but I perfected it.” Catherine replied.
“Wow, so you must be really good at writing ages then?”
“Oh, my husband is better” Catherine waved her hand modestly. “…but I have written my share of ages yes. This one here is one of my more boring ones though, unlike Atrus I like to make my ages more artistic. You should visit my age of Katarn. Not that pleasant vacation spot granted, but it does offers an exiting hike into a forest with glowing fireflies and beautiful plants.” Catherine sounded almost like Rarity at the end.
“Well, I know a friend who is going to love it then.” Rainbow Dash added, thinking about Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash did as Catherine instructed. Once the steam was running again she made her way back to the station and down the corridor, entering a blue lit area. In front of her the blue sub surface sea opened itself behind the thick glass that held the water outside. The track runner looked more like a mining wagon rather than a train. It had a big lever inside. Rainbow Dash trotted up and jumped into the wagon.
“Now, pull the lever and enjoy the ride my little pony. The glass tunnel runs all the way so be sure to take in all the water creatures that Myst has to offer on the way” Catherine said.
“Hey, as long as I get there in one piece I’m fine.” Rainbow Dash boomed and pulled the lever. The wagon released. Slowly it descended down the tunnel. It quickly gained speed.
“Ooaa.”
Rainbow Dash felt her stomach drop when the wagon suddenly accelerated to double speed. Rainbow Dash was rapidly starting to wonder what Catherine meant by ‘Take in all the water creatures.’ Everything there was to take in blurred past her so fast due to the gradually accelerating ride. There was another major drop.
“OOOOAAAA!”
The track was lit up by red strip lights that circulated the outside of the glass tunnel. They swooshed by in an increasingly faster pace.
“Oh YEA! THIS IS AWESOME!” Rainbow Dash blasted with a smile on her face. There were female laughter coming from the Myst book.
“Enjoy the ride? Be sure to look up, you might see a sea whale.”
It was then as if Catherine had placed and order in advance. Suddenly the light from the surface was covered by a massive shadow. Rainbow Dash looked up in wonder and festered her eyes on the biggest fish that she had ever seen.
The side eye of the creature seemed to look down on Rainbow Dash as she rocketed by below. The eye was comically small compared to the rest of his body. He then gave out a whale cry that was so deep that it rumbled the train track.
Suddenly Rainbow Dash entered a part of the tunnel that no longer ran through the sea. Darkness engulfed her. Light glimmered ahead while the wagon started to slow down. It stopped at another train station. Rainbow Dash jumped out and felt the adrenaline pumping.
“OH YEA! That was AWESOME! Can I go again!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Catherine laughed.
“If you want to my little pony, if you want to, but let’s get that book page first.” Catherine leaned in closer to the Myst transmission book. “We do not want our egg headed boy becoming too worked up now, do we?”
Rainbow Dash laughed. “I guess you’re right.”
“He is charming though.” Catherine stated smiling while running her hand through her dark hair. Rainbow Dash turned her head downward and put her hoof behind it, not sure how to feel about herself blushing at that statement.
Rainbow Dash made her way through the underwater base. She eventually came into some sort of control room. In the middle of it there was a panel that had four levers and a red button. In front of the panel was a small enclosed compartment that looked like it could be opened. Its hull was made out of glass. Rainbow Dash looked inside and spotted the forth book page. She guessed that she needed to solve the puzzle with the four levers. She tried to use them, but nothing happened.
“Alright, Catherine. What do I do here?”
Catherine looked right into the transmission window and smiled. Rainbow Dash laughed nervously.
“You don’t mean…?”
“What fun would a puzzle be if one already knew the answer? Despite, I heard from Atrus that you were a smart pony.” Catherine said.
Rainbow Dash grinned confidently. “Yea, I am pretty smart. But wasn’t it you who said that we should get to the Book Of Eternity as fast as possible?”
“I did. But since we’re not taking that road…” Catherine said teasingly and smiled again into the Myst book. Rainbow Dash shook her head as if to say ‘Same old eggheads.’
“Alright. What do we have here?” Rainbow Dash studied the situation. She brought out her note block. She already knew that the levers did nothing and that there were four of them. What could they correspond to? She looked around for something else in the room that there were four of. She found nothing. Alright, what about that something outside the room?
She looked out the big window overlooking the ocean floor. She spotted four round weights that seemed to be held up by buoys above water level. Alright, was there a way to see what was up there? Rainbow Dash looked up and spotted a hatch.
Rainbow Dash felt the warm breeze hit her in the face when she was greeted with a dessert area. She spotted a shack. Behind it there was a bridge that lead out into the water. She spotted the four buoys floating, reachable from the bridge. She exited the hatch and walked out on it, feeling it swaying by the sea waves.
“So, what’s this Equestria age that Atrus keeps talking about?” Catherine asked.
“Equestria isn’t one of your ages lady, Equestria is my home.”
“How do you know it isn’t another age, pony?” Catherine asked.
Rainbow Dash now noticed that the buoys all had control panels on them, but nothing indicated that they could be used, no lights, nothing. She looked around. She spotted a pipe that connected to the bridge. Out of its end four hose’s lead into each buoy. She wondered where the pipe lead. Rainbow Dash were glad that she was a Pegasus and not Atrus assistant Stranger or else she would have to use the surface railway to follow the pipe.
“Because I grew up there.” Rainbow Dash replied as she took to the sky.
“And I grew up in Riven, wouldn’t have known about any other age if it weren’t for Gehns teachings.”
“Gehn taught you?” Rainbow Dash asked with a tinge of surprise in her voice.
“He did, before he realized how good a student I was and arranged a forced marriage to keep my talent for himself.”
“Huh, charming guy.” Rainbow Dash muttered sarcastically.
Rainbow Dash was now over the area she was before. She spotted the boiler that she shut down earlier to enter the underwater railway. The revelation hit her in the head like the adrenaline that ride gave her. This pipe she now followed was one of the alternatives she had earlier when she needed to stop the boiler. She flew down to the bridge leading out into the and turned the valve there, redirecting the steam into the buoy pipe.
When she came back she was disappointed to find that the buoy controls still showed no sign of life. Maybe she could do something now down below the control room? She went down the hatch again and walked up to the panel with the four levers.
The lever still didn’t work. She pressed the red button.
There were the sound of an engine starting behind her. The panel in front of her lit up. The weights outside each lit up with a red light.
“I see you’re getting somewhere my little pony.” Catherine said.
Rainbow Dash tried the levers. Each one of them sent the corresponding weight up a notch. When pulling the lever backwards that weight went down the same amount.
“But what’s the combination?” Rainbow Dash asked herself.
She spotted a table close by that had lit up after activating the generator. She trotted up to it and discovered a book. Inside the book she found notes from the captains of the station, along with the solution to the buoy puzzle. She noted it down into her note book.
“Not bad pony, I see Atrus have taught you to write.”
“He did, I never thought I would be able to write these letters.” Rainbow Dash said, then then thinking to herself. ‘Have to keep it a secret to my Wonderbolt friends, or else they’ll think I’m an egghead.’
It didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to find out that she could alter the amount of steam added to each weight by changing the settings of the control panels that she spotted on the buoys outside.
“I heard Atrus mention that you two had sons.” Rainbow Dash recalled as she fiddled with the levers.
“We did. But they went corrupt and started plundering their fathers ages. In the end we had no choice but to imprison them inside prison books.” There was a firmness in Catherine’s voice. Rainbow Dash stopped fiddling. She turned her face up in bewilderment.
“Wow, hold on now lady, slow down. So you’re telling me that you were forced to use prison books, not only on Atrus father, but also on your own sons!?”
“Hm.” Catherine mumbled firmly. “I knew that it had to be done, but Atrus was resilient to the idea. I had a hard time convincing him I’ll tell you.”
“Jie, what a rough ride your family has had.” Rainbow Dash stated.
Catherine stared blankly into the transmitting window, her face bordering between certainty and uncertainty. She snorted, but there were no tears. She turned her head.
“Yea.” She said.
Rainbow Dash held her breath as the last weight went into position. There were the sound of steam leaking out from machinery when the glass compartment containing the book page opened. Rainbow Dash reached in and grabbed it. She brought out the Tomahna linking book and inserted the page. A bright light followed before the page had been neatly mended with the book.
“Four down, one to go.”