• Member Since 1st Aug, 2011
  • offline last seen February 25th

CTVulpin


An aspiring Author honing his skills by writing about these silly little ponies. A Fox of few words outside the realm of fiction, unless he gets on a roll with something.

Sequels1

  • ENaborale
    An Aitran tale. Twilight and Spike join Star Swirl's daughter Nyx in exploring the worlds Star Swirl created to teach key principles of Writing and find themselves in the last chapter of a madpony's tale of betrayal, revenge, and restitution.
    CTVulpin · 42k words  ·  81  2 · 1.4k views
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This story is a sequel to Aitran


Twilight and Rainbow are asked by Star Swirl the Bearded to take on the challenge of finding his lost wife and daughter in the decaying world of Sohndar, which is ruled by an old enemy of Star Swirl's family who has been trapped there for uncounted years. Although their adventures in the worlds of Aitran have given our heroes the confidence to succeed, they'll soon find that Sohndar is an entirely different bale of hay.

Image by Muffinsforever

Chapters (15)
Comments ( 187 )

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

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.

296738
Well done. The game's called "Riven" for a reason after all :trollestia:

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. :twilightsmile:

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.

294463
This series is based off of the games, rather than the books. As such, this could very well be a five part story. :twilightsmile:

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

386028
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.

386615
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.

386634

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.

386028
386615
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...

386737

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?

386615

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 :pinkiesmile:

>>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 :derpytongue2:

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 :trollestia:)

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. :twilightsmile:
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?

543816
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. :ajbemused: Plus I decided to give RD a little relief from the near-constant claustrophobia I've been putting her through. :ajsleepy:
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... :trixieshiftleft:

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

389365

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.

542110 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...:twilightoops:

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

771261 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. :)

771665
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 :twilightblush:

771740 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.

771740
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:facehoof:

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