“What does she mean by symbols?” Nyx asked once the image of Margent faded and the projectors turned off.
“According to your father’s journal,” Twilight said, “once you’ve reached the end of each lesson world, there’ll be a symbol you need to copy down. I’d guess you then have to place each symbol on this,” she indicated the tall round light table, “in order to reach that book.”
“What are we standing around here for then?” Nyx asked, heading for the elevator. “Let’s get started.”
“Not so fast Nyx,” Twilight said, picking the filly up in her magic and depositing her next to her.
“What?” Nyx asked in exasperated confusion.
“Your dad’s journal indicated that part of the means to get to each linking book can be found from this room,” Twilight explained. She went over to the nearest of the three projectors and peered into the lens. She started toying with a pair of levers on either side of the device, and by then Nyx’s curiosity was aroused enough to make her try to push in for a look herself. Twilight stood back obligingly and offered her back as a platform so the filly could get up high enough to see into the lens. To Nyx’s surprise, she could see straight through to the outside of the tower, although the view was somewhat enlarged and out of focus. A symbol was etched in the center of the lens that looked slightly like a leaf or a long, closed flower bud. The frame around the lens had four concentric tracks, each containing a yellow bead in a seemingly random position. Nyx gripped the lever on the right in her magic and slid it up, and the view zoomed out as the second bead from the center moved around in its track. The lever on the right moved horizontally and moved the innermost bead as it adjusted the focus.
“Ok, I think I get it,” Nyx said. “This is like a telescope and I have to point it at something. But how do I move it?” She felt around and inside the contraption with her magic until something moved and the view shifted a little to the right. Grinning, Nyx zoomed out as much as possible and started moving the view around. Above and slightly to the right of the telescope’s original orientation, one of the tusk-towers was visible, and high above its door was what looked like a small black window. Zooming in and adjusting the focus at need, she saw that the window framed a metal outline of the leaf symbol, so she made adjustments until the two overlapped. “Twilight, “she said, hopping down the floor, “make a note on how the beads are arranged; I’ll bet anything that’s what we’re supposed to take from this.”
Twilight nodded and pulled out one of her notebooks and a pencil, and then made a quick sketch of the symbol in the glass surrounded by four circles with each bead’s position carefully marked. She then followed Nyx to the next projector-telescope, where the process was repeated. All three telescopes operated in the exact same manner, with the only differences being the tusk they looked toward and the symbol etched into the glass, which were a bird in flight for the northern tower and a circle inside a rounded rectangle for the one nearest their arrival point.
“All right,” Twilight said when they were finished, “which lesson world should we start with?”
“Let’s do it them in the order Father wrote about them in the journal,” Nyx answered quickly and with an expectant look at Twilight. The older unicorn took the hint and brought out the journal, flipping quickly through to the entry right after I’strukun.
“That would be the… ‘Wahteg’?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Where does he come up with these names anyway?” Nyx just shrugged. “Anyway,” Twilight continued, checking back in the I’strukun entry, “the book’s in the western tusk, the one with the leaf symbol. To get in-”
“Let me try to figure it out,” Nyx interrupted. “I know we have to save Spike, but I don’t see any reason not to go through the lessons properly. Besides, the crazy pony might have changed a lot more than just the final answers.”
“She may very well have,” Twilight said with a nod, recalling an entry that hinted to that effect in the unbound journal.
With their goal decided, they got back into the elevator, rode it down, and exited the tower through the door on the left. Crossing the bridge brought them to a steep series of stairs – first a set of steps carved into the cliff, then curving metal stairs that bridged the gap to another set of stone steps that forked near the top, the right fork leading up to the tusk-tower they were looking for. A narrow brown double door was set into the side of the tower, with a handle in the center below a round plate with five buttons arranged in a circle on it. A quick test of the handle proved the door was locked. A metal sculpture shaped like a hose nozzle sat on a rock, the wider end pointing at the door and with a partially covered clear glass orb sitting atop the narrow end. “What do you make of this Nyx?” Twilight asked.
“I think,” Nyx said, looking at the door, “the door’s locked with a combination and that,” she pointed to the nozzle, “will help us figure out the solution somehow.” She walked around the nozzle a few times, examining it from every angle, and the sat down, looking up at the glass orb with her horn aglow as she thought. She aimed a beam of light, light blue, at the orb and watched out of the corner of her eye as it got reflected downward and then scattered out from the end of the nozzle to light up one pie-shaped section of the disk on the door. “So, it needs light,” Nyx said.
“Preferably white light, I’d guess,” Twilight added. Nyx nodded and looked around. Although the ponies were not at the highest point of the island, their vantage point did provide a decent view of most of the island, and they could both just make out three or four lampposts like the one at their point of entry. Twilight started to voice the conclusion she reached, but managed to catch herself in time and instead gave Nyx a questioning look.
The filly thought for a bit longer, and then ventured, “We need to find a light source somewhere and relay it up here? Using the lanterns, maybe?” Twilight nodded in agreement and Nyx grinned as she set off in search of light. Twilight followed close behind as Nyx went down to the fork in the stairs and took the other, shorter flight up, which deposited the two ponies on a sandy path that paralleled the circumference of I’strukun Island. They passed a broken metal post like those the lanterns were mounted on, which was a cause of some concern to Twilight and Nyx. “I don’t think that crazy pony would allow any of the books to become impossible to reach,” Nyx said after a moment. “She wants us, or Father, to go into each of them.”
“Good point,” Twilight agreed. They continued on, and shortly came upon one of the lanterns, which had a yellow orb on the top. Twilight gave Nyx a boost and they investigated the lantern together. It had three lenses, and peering into them revealed that a mirror had been installed inside, making two of the lenses act as an angled telescope. The third lens only provided a dark view of the mirror’s backside. The lantern turned easily, albeit somewhat squeakily, on its post when Twilight applied the proper force with her magic and was heavy enough to stay at the orientation she left it at. Twilight turned it until she could see the next closest lantern through it, and then stepped back and let Nyx jump down from her back. “If you don’t mind me pointing it out,” Twilight began, and Nyx gestured for her to continue, “these will reflect light around the island until it eventually reaches the door, and I suspect the colors of the orbs will give us the code to the door’s lock once we’ve relayed the light correctly. We still need a strong, focused light though.”
Nyx looked around and spotted a device on the rocky cliff by the ocean that looked like it was in the same style of construction as the refractor by the tower door. “Would that do?” she asked, pointing it out to Twilight.
“Let’s see,” Twilight replied, walking over. The device was mostly a large, thick brown dish aimed at the yellow-topped lantern, and on the back was a small, clear crystal. Next to it was a valve wheel in a mounting that came up to Twilight’s shoulder. Out in the ocean, a large rough sphere sat on a pillar, and on top of it was what Twilight thought could be a light projector. Nyx cast a telekinesis spell over the wheel and started to turn it. The top half of the sphere turned a little for every full turn of the wheel, and after a few turns a gap became visible, revealing a silvery sphere inside the structure. As soon as the gap was pointed toward the island, the projector on top emitted a bright light aimed at the device on shore. The crystal on the back of the disk caught the light and focused it into a beam that came out of the center of the dish and went straight to the yellow-topped lantern.
“The first button to press will be the yellow one,” Nyx said, pleased. “Write that down Twilight.”
“Excuse me?” Twilight said, stopping and casting a disapproving look at the purple filly, who continued trotting back to the lantern.
“Please,” Nyx added to her last statement. Twilight nodded, mollified, and caught up to her. Working together – Nyx looking through the lenses as Twilight turned the lantern – they determined that they had to direct the light toward the lantern situated on a rock just a short walk to the east. That lantern was crowned with a blue orb, which Twilight noted as she and Nyx walked over and climbed up to it. It seemed reasonable that the next point in the relay system they were building would be the red-topped lantern at the spot where they’d arrived in I’strukun, which wasn’t too far away, but no matter how carefully Twilight adjusted the blue one she couldn’t both catch the incoming light and aim a lens at the red. Eventually she gave up and looked through the lantern while her head was blocking the light coming from the previous lantern, turning it until she saw a lantern in the center of her view. Moving her head out of the light’s path, she and Nyx looked to see where it was shining and discovered that the third lantern was on the complete other side of the island, and clearly only approachable by going the long way around the island. “Aaugh,” Nyx groaned, glowering at the distant lantern and the amount of climbing up and down that walking to it would require. “Twilight, could you possibly teleport that far?”
“That distance shouldn’t be a problem,” Twilight said, squinting, “and the view’s clear enough. Hold on.” Nyx braced herself as Twilight cast the spell, and in a flash of magenta light they warped over to the distant lantern platform.
“You’re good at that,” Nyx said.
“Thanks,” Twilight said, blushing a little as she sighted the second lantern in the distance and then started orienting the third one appropriately. “I just wish I was a little better; maybe I could have gotten to Margent before she escaped into another world.”
“We’ll get her,” Nyx said with confidence. “She can’t possibly be smarter than Aldro, and you outsmarted him. Oh, look,” she added suddenly, pointing to her right, “the next lantern’s real close.”
“So it is,” Twilight said, having already figured that out for herself from aiming the lantern. She wrote down the color, green, and then went with Nyx to the next lantern. Fortunately, the remaining lanterns were all relatively close together, although the two ponies did have to climb up and down a lot of stairs because most of them were off the main path around the island. The final lantern they had to aim happened to be the red-capped one at the arrival point, which Twilight felt was sort of appropriate. Standing in the light’s path as usual, she turned the lantern until she could see the light-refracting device set up by the tusk-tower, and was rewarded with the sight of it activating from the light that made it past her head and through the mirrored lantern. “I think we’re good to go,” she said to Nyx, noting down the final color in the code sequence.
“Then let’s get going,” the filly said impatiently. She started to trot over to the ladder down to the main trail, but after shaking her head in amusement Twilight grabbed Nyx telekinetically, floated her back to her side, and teleported to the tower door.
With the beam of light bouncing around the island and into the crystal on top of the nozzle-shaped device, a circle of light divided into five pie-shaped wedges of color was now projected onto the metal plate and buttons. Twilight started to wonder about why the light was split up in that manner and not a natural bow of colored bands, but an impatient nudge from Nyx reminded her that there were more important things to focus on. After consulting her notes, she entered the seven-button combination, and the lock on the door released with a clearly audible sound. Nyx took the honor of turning the latch, and the narrow double doors opened smoothly. The room inside was small, round, brightly lit, and plainly decorated. The floor was a simple stone mosaic of a green triangle with pointed gold ovoids and curlicues creating the impression of another triangle pointing the opposite direction. At the back stood a squat podium that had four beads set in concentric tracks around a big domed button. Overhead, near the ceiling, was an ovoid golden cage with a pointed bottom, and the presence of a counterweight hanging behind and to the right of the podium promised the cage would come down if the beads on the podium were arranged correctly. Nyx was just tall enough to see the top of the podium, but all she did after looking at it was nod and move aside to make room for Twilight.
“I was right about the beads around the telescopes,” she said. “You have the notes on them, right?”
“Right here,” Twilight said, pulling the appropriate notebook out of her bags. “Now…” she said, opening it. “Good, I remembered to sketch the symbols in each one. Which tower was this again?”
“The leaf one,” Nyx said after some thought.
“Got it.” Twilight moved the beads to match the arrangement she’d sketched out, and then pressed the button. A winch activated up above and the gold cage quickly dropped until it was just above the podium. There was an opening in the front, and inside rested a red book marked with the leaf-like symbol and the word “Wahteg.” Twilight motioned for Nyx to hop on her back as she opened the book to the linking panel. In the typical manner of such panels, it provided a rotating view of a part of the world it liked to. In this case, the view was of an incomplete-looking roofless round hut made of cobblestones and mortar sitting on the peak of a tiny island with raised metal catwalks along one side as well as glimpses of steep ridges of rock rising out of the inevitable sea. “You go through first Nyx,” Twilight said. “That should be more convenient for both of us. Nyx nodded and stretched out a hoof, to which Twilight obligingly floated the book and touched to the linking panel.