Myst

by ToneCraft

Myst--Part 3

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.

“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.

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.

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.