A Rainbow Over Myst

by Moon Flame

The Color Puzzle

“Can you see the observatory?” Catherine asked.

“Is that what that is? It looks like a cloud factory with a construction helmet!” Rainbow Dash blasted.

In front of Rainbow Dash, a round building stood. There was a dock below the observatory with a boat that seemed to have sunk, only the mast sticking out of the surface. Above the observatory laid upon a hill, what had to be, the biggest cogs that Rainbow Dash had ever seen. Below the observatory was a forest, not that it would necessarily be taken as one and not a patch of bushes since that was exactly how it looked when one took into account the gigantic pine tree that speared the sky. To the left of the observatory there was a spaceship.

“Alright, this has to be the strangest island that I have ever seen!”

“Thanks for that.” Catherine said and laughed passive aggressively. “It is the first Myst island that I made, and the only one that existed for a while.”

“Hold on? you made it?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed surprised. “I thought that Atrus made it.”

“Did you know? I see Atrus is still taking the glory of my work. This is where Atrus and I raised Achenar and Sirrus before they decided to destroy their father’s work.”

“And then you had to imprison them.” Rainbow Dash recalled. “What happened to them?”

“Sirrus managed to escape from his prison book. They both then decided to kidnap our daughter Yeesha and travel to Serenia, the age where she now receives education.” For some reason there was an emphasis on the word ‘Education’ as Catherine spoke the word. “Once there Sirrus tried to switch body with Yeesha.”

Rainbow Dash had to block her breathing completely not to burst out in an awkward laugher of incredulous.

“And why in the world would he do that?!”

“So that he would be taught the art of age writing of course. I convinced Atrus not to teach Achenar and Sirrus since I feared they would abuse it once they knew it. Sirrus knew though that our daughter was being taught the art so he did what his selfish heart desired. In the end it ended up killing them both.”

Rainbow Dash stopped. She hovered midair.

“Wait? So, you’re telling me that both of your sons are dead?!”

“Yes. Did Atrus never tell you that?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head.

“Odd, I never knew he would still be sad about what happened. After all these years I thought he had gotten over it.”

“You don’t say.” Rainbow Dash said suspiciously. An odd feeling slowly started to creep up on her about the real extent of the brothers roles in all this. Not that Rainbow Dash doubted… Or did she?

Rainbow Dash landed outside the observatory. Upon entering she was greeted with an oval roof and a chair that allowed the user to lay down and look up. Catherine then had her turn of the lights and lay down.

After a projector showed her all the stars in the sky she had to write down a number of constellations from different time periods. It was by far the most boring thing Rainbow Dash had ever done. Yes, even more boring than the water puzzle. After writing down the constellations she had to go outside, pull a few levers and raise the sunken boat. Rainbow Dash had no idea how a few levers managed to raise a sunken boat but whatever, at least now she had her hoof on the last page.

“Great. Can we get that book of eternity now?!” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently while putting the last page in the Tomahna linking book.

“My little pony, there is no time to waste. Let’s just hope that whoever is chasing you hasn’t gotten to it first.” Catherine said. Rainbow Dash sighed.

“Can you stop calling me that?”

“Call you what?”

“My little pony, it sounds so cutesy.”

“Why not? Atrus calls me my little rebel. You shouldn’t be afraid to be womanly Rainbow Dash. After all, just like with the men and their charm, our beauty is our greatest weapon.”

Rainbow Dash laughed.

“Yea right. I’ll be sure to call ‘Beauty’ when I need a wooden door kicked in.”

“And I’ll be sure to let her know. After all, my beauty allowed me to raise an army of rebels and overthrow a tyrant.”

“I heard it was Stranger. Why is he called that, by the way? Didn’t he have a real name?”

Catherine giggled.

“Now my little pony, that is a question that is way too philosophical to answer at the time. Now, let’s fly over to that golden temple and finish this.”

The temple sphere building sent flashing reflections from its surface when Rainbow Dash went for landing. She landed just outside on a catwalk. She looked up.

The sun patched through beyond the buildings round borders. It was amazing how something so clearly hand built could have been made so perfectly round. Only the door in its middle broke the roundness of the sun like temple.

Upon entering Rainbow Dash was immediately greeted with a row of running engines. For a ‘temple’ this sure looked mechanical.

“What kind of ‘temple’ has engines in it?”

“What did you expect a temple to look like?” Catherine asked.

“For example, where’s the altar, the ancient stone sculptures, the withering red carpet, the huge windows?”

“That depends on the culture. You should visit more of the mechanized ages me and Atrus have created. Machines are holy to these cultures and therefore they get a place inside their temples as a part of their heritage, just like these ones were a part of mine.”

“Right. So, what does your ‘heritage’ require me to do here?”

“There should be a panel right in the middle of this room.”

Rainbow Dash looked around. She spotted a round golden altar with something that looked like described. Rainbow Dash’s hooves sent metallic echoes among the sound of turning of gears and releasing steam from the engines. The first thing Rainbow Dash noticed on top of the control panel was the flat blue shapes of different sizes. When she got closer she spotted that the shapes had holes in them. As for the number of symbols there were five of them. They were surrounded by blue.

“Why are there symbols of the Myst islands on this panel?” Rainbow Dash asked. Catherine laughed surprised.

“You noticed that those shapes represented the Myst islands immediately?”

“Ah, yea. Of course, I’m a Pegasus Wonderbolt! I always need to keep an eye open from the sky.” Rainbow Dash raised her wings and put on a confident grin. “Now, if you would just tell me what to do here than we’ll be done here.”

Catherine smiled passively into the transmission window. Rainbow Dash put her hoof over her face and sighed.

“Oh, come on!”

“What? You were doing so great, you might even be better at this than Stranger.”

Rainbow Dash’s angry face quickly reformed into a confident grin. She looked at the islands again.

Alright, so there had to be something about the holes in them. Rainbow Dash looked up. She spotted twelve holders, each one containing a ball of a different color. Above each holder was a lever. Rainbow Dash pulled one of the levers. She heard a ‘brumming’ sound coming out of a speaker.

“Huh?” Rainbow Dash blurted.

She picked up the orange ball that laid inside the corresponding bowl and placed it inside one of the holes of the biggest island, the one that had the temple puzzle Rainbow Dash remembered. As she did that the island started glowing the same color as the ball. It soon turned out that each of the island started glowing the same color as the ball when put in one of the islands holes. Two colors couldn’t be put in the same island though.

“Alright, so five of the twelve colors are right.” Rainbow Dash noted out loud. But which color? And in which island and hole? For the first time since the village Rainbow Dash felt that overwhelming feeling again. She closed her eyes while feeling the panic growing.

“What would Twilight do?” Rainbow Dash thought out loud.

“Twilight?” Catherine asked.

Rainbow Dash didn’t answer. Her mind raced like her wings during a flight competition.

‘This is impossible dad.’ She heard herself say.

‘Nothing is impossible for my Rainbow Dash.’ She heard her father’s reply.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened.

“The animals!” She whispered to herself. She reached out her hoof and pulled another lever, the one above the red ball. The speaker gave out a slurping sound. Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes.

“The slurp?” Her eyes widened again. “The slurp!”

Rainbow Dash recalled the slurping animal she heard when she first exited the cage at the very beginning of her adventure. She pulled several more levers. While pulling the lever above he green ball she recognized the squeaking sound that frog animal gave during the annoying water puzzle. She heard the clucking sound coming from the cobalt ball, recognizing that from the Village. She pulled the lever by the jasmine orange ball, resulting in a dark sound that rumbled the speaker.

“The sea whales!” Rainbow Dash whispered.

Rainbow Dash picked up each ball corresponding to the sound she recognized and put it on the island where she heard the sound, but in which hole where she supposed to put it? She looked at the red ball, the one that belonged to the slurp animal. She remembered that one being on the same island as the temple. Rainbow Dash gasped.

“The red dots!” She exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash left the balls as they were. She spread her wings and flew out of the temple. Catherine remained silent as she watched with awe how smart this seemingly brutish Pegasus pony really was.

Rainbow Dash entered the temple through the backdoor and festered her eyes at the pig animal again, the one that had sacrifices put on the altar in front of it. She could see those metal bugs that could be opened by a string to the right.

“Red, red, red.” The color went on repeat inside her head. Rainbow Dash saw the sun beams patch through the colored temple windows. She wailed her eyes upward to look at them, her eyes continuing as the revelation showed itself on the temple ceiling, a revelation in the shape of a giant ball with the symbol of the rebel knife dented onto it.

Rainbow Dash spread her wings again and exited the temple. She flew above the clouds and landed on one, brought up her note block and noted down the position of the temple.

Rainbow Dash revisited each island where she found the book pages. She noticed one of the floating balls in the water puzzle having a rebel knife symbol. She found a ball being kept as an ornament inside the gathering hut in the village. She found a ball laying underwater outside the underwater base, visible from the windows.

Upon visiting the original Myst island she found one ball built into the steering wheel of the boat. But what was the animal and the ball color for that island? Rainbow Dash pondered on this as she trotted around. She trotted up the stairs and leaned herself against those giant cog wheels.

Rainbow Dash heard a familiar sound. She looked right and caught a good glance of the cockroach. It was the same bug that could be opened inside the temple, apparently this is the island where they could be found. The bug spread its wings and ‘brummed’ of into the air.

---

Rainbow Dash still heard the ‘brum’ inside her head when she put the orange ball inside the shape that looked like the Myst island, inside the hole that corresponded to where one could find the sunken boat. She caught a brief glance at all the other balls being in position before she heard a clonking sound. The entire map lit up. It closed and descended into the big golden ball that had started spinning downward, slowly revealing an opening.

“You did it my little pony!” Catherine exclaimed inside the Myst book. There were the sound of metal sliding against each other. The entire golden ball loosened from its fastened position and came rolling toward Rainbow Dash.

“OAAAH!” Rainbow Dash wailed.

She tripped on her tail and fell on her back. She saw the ball surface coming toward her, the squeaking sound it made along the floor witnessing how many ton it weighted, and how mushed she would be in just a moment. Rainbow Dash pupils gained a dark core as they imagined how death would feel like. They watched the golden surface roll closer.

The world then went dark for Rainbow Dash.