//------------------------------// // The Fourth Temple // Story: For Her Mistakes // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// While she tried to hide her rage the best that should could at the way ponies reacted to her, Trixie couldn't help but sneer at the ponies who were all looking at her with terror in their eyes. And just like all the other ponies who had done this in past years, they reacted with what she hated the most. They began to scream. "AHHHHH! IT'S TRIXIE!" they began to scream as the ponies ran around and away from her as fast as they could, occasionally running into other objects or each other in their desperate attempts to escape her. "She's going to kill us all and take over Equestria." "Buckers," Trixie muttered to herself with a sigh, before screaming in pain as a spell slammed into her back and sent her rolling across the ground. She slowly got up and turned to face her attacker with murder in her eyes, glaring at the stage pony with venom while he stared at her with an arrogant smirk. "My friends, do not run! There is only one of her and hundreds of us! Even she cannot take us all!" His words seemed to reach the closest of the ponies, who stopped running and began to glare at Trixie as well with hatred and rage. Trixie found herself quickly surrounded by the ponies of the town, causing her to growl with rage as she prepared to fight her way out of another city. But before any of the spells could be flung, Starshine ran in front of Trixie to place himself between her and the ponies. "Why are you attacking her?! What has she done to any of you?!" he yelled at them. "You are too young to know this, but this is the pony who nearly took down the Elements of Harmony and dethrone the princesses of Equestria in the same day, along with that master of hers," Gregory said with venom in his voice as he glared at Trixie with his horn glowing. "She tried to turn us all into slaves and rule over us! She is evil and must be destroyed!" Starshine looked at the pony in confusion before he turned back to face Trixie, who still glared at the unicorn performing. "Is that true?" Starshine asked her. "He speaks the truth to some degree," Trixie replied. "Yes, I did try to overthrow the princesses and destroy the Elements of Harmony. I will not deny that. However, Gregory failed to mention the part where I stopped Morgaine and aided the Elements in bringing her down." "Silence, witch," Gregory growled as he began to walk towards her with a snarl. "We all know that you cannot be trusted. You will probably try to rule over us again!" The ponies who had surrounded her all began to chant 'witch' as well, although Trixie could have cared less. "Why would I want to rule over you? All you foals do is whine and complain," Trixie said with a smirk. "I think that I would trap you all in stone so it would be quiet." While not the wisest thing to say, the tone of the threat did cause some of the ponies to back away from her with fear. But Gregory wasn't taking the hint and once again riled the ponies up. "Do not let her intimidate you! Today the evil witch falls!" he yelled as he tried to rush towards her, but Starshine once again placed himself between him and Trixie. "Leave her alone!" Starshine yelled, causing the performer to glare at the small pony. "Out of my way, child!" Gregory snarled as he picked Starshine up with his magic and tossed him to the ground. Gregory smirked and turned back to Trixie...only to back away in terror when he saw her. Trixie was used to taking insults and she was used to being attacked. She had learned how to defend herself and how to cope with the verbal abuse; that's what she was used to. What she hadn't learned how to do was to control her anger when somepony she cared about was harmed, or how to hold back against those who hurt said pony. So what Gregory saw when he looked at her was Trixie at her worst. Her eyes were a blazing azure and magic radiated off of her body, so much so that the unicorns closet to her backed away while clutching their horns in pain. "W-what is thi-" Gregory began before he was lifted into the air by Trixie's magic while the other ponies screamed and backed away. Trixie snarled at him and tilted her head slightly, resulting in a sickening crack which reverberated from Gregory's bones. Gregory howled in agony when he next felt his horn snap off of his head, before he was knocked out cold as Trixie slammed him into the ground. She then slowly turned to glare at all the other ponies who were looking at her with horror, a slow smile spreading across her face. "Do not think that I am like the foals who run Canterlot or the princess of Ponyville, who will allow you to insult them with no fear of repercussions," Trixie said in a deadly whisper as she began to slowly walk towards the crowd of fear-struck ponies, her cape floating behind her. "I do not take kindly to being insulted, but I hate it even more when those I care about are hurt. And somepony I care about is hurt. So, I will return the courtesy to all of you!" She roared and slammed her hooves into the ground, sending out a shockwave of azure magic that blasted all the ponies around her away. Those who hadn't been knocked out completely by the spell ran for their lives, as Trixie began to scream after them. "RUN YOU FOALS! BEFORE I TRULY GET MAD!" She watched all the ponies flee for their lives until she was the only pony left in the square, besides the unconscious Gregory and Starshine, who was struggling back to his hooves. Trixie let out a sigh and felt the rage leave her body, which resulted in her resuming her regular appearance. She then walked over to Starshine and levitated him back to his hooves, looking him over to see if he were harmed. "Are you alright?" she asked him, sighing in relief when she saw no injuries. Starshine nodded slightly while Trixie looked around the abandoned streets with a frown. "I think I've outstayed my welcome. Time for me to head back to the wagon." She looked down at Starshine as she said this, not sure what to do with him. "I can drop you off somewhere else, if you wish for me to." "No, I'm fine," Starshine said, although his tone told her that he was not fine at all. Trixie made a mental note to inquire more about what was bothering him once they were back to the wagon, but first she needed to get out of town. That would be the easy part. "Hang onto me," she said as she placed a hoof on Starshine's shoulder and engaged her teleportation spell, casting an azure light upon the both of them that made them vanish in a flash of light. They re-appeared in front of her wagon, which she had wisely parked away from any prying eyes. She lowered the barrier and walked inside, noticing that it took Starshine a few seconds to follow her in. She quickly cast the spell that allowed the wagon to move on its own before she sat down beside Starshine, who had seated himself on the couch while trying to avoid looking her in the eyes. "What is the matter?" she asked him, watching his eyes while she waited for a response. He stared down at his hooves instead of answering, shuffling them uncomfortably before he spoke. "You said back in the square that you had tried to take over Equestria with...somepony," he said quietly, still avoiding her gaze. "Does...does that make you evil?" "No, I am not evil," Trixie said with a smirk. "I am a fool. I allowed myself to believe the lies that I had been fed by Morgaine and became a pawn in her game. A foolish pawn." "Then, if you're not evil...then, why did you do it?" Starshine asked, this time looking up at Trixie as he did so with confusion in his eyes. Trixie leaned back against the couch and looked up at the wagon's roof, wondering how to best answer his question. "Because...because I was tired of being made fun of and ignored; tired of being second best to a perfect pony," Trixie said with scorn in her voice, all of which was directed towards herself. "And if I had to take over Equestria to prove that to the ponies, then I was willing to do so. Morgaine gave me the tools to become more than a second-rate stage performer like Gregory. She taught me how to be the most skilled unicorn in all of Equestria. Yet for all the power I gained, I lost a bit of myself at the same time, until I had become nearly consumed with my desire for revenge and the power that I had. If it were not for an orange filly, I might still be that way." Starshine looked up into Trixie's eyes, seeing both the sorrow for what she had done in them, and the hatred for herself that still burned bright after ten years of being alone with that knowledge. "Who is Morgaine?" Starshine asked, snapping Trixie out of her self-loathing and making her refocus. "Morgaine WAS my teacher...and my mother," Trixie said sadly, looking over at the chest which held the mask that she had been given before the final battle with Batman at Canterlot. "Your mother?" "Well, she was better than my real mother, and considering how Morgaine was a psycho, that should tell you what my real mother was like," Trixie said with a hurt chuckle. "Morgaine took me in, when I was alone in the world, and gave me not just the will to live, but a purpose as well. I wanted to please her so badly that...I allowed myself to believe her lies--and nearly destroyed all of Equestria." "Is that why everypony hates you?" "Sometimes, ponies don't let go of the past," Trixie said softly. "And they still hate me for trying to bring their world down all those years ago. So, that's the reason I do my best to avoid any towns or cities that I pass, so that what you just saw in this town doesn't happen--especially when others with me get involved. So yes, I suppose my desire to take Equestria is the reason that they hate me." Starshine looked at Trixie for a minute in confusion, thinking it over in his mind. Then a giant smile crossed his face as he wrapped his arms around her in a huge hug. "Yeah, but that's probably because they haven't gotten to know you like I have," he said as he looked up at the now-confused Trixie. "You're not really a bad pony, just a bit grumpy from time to time. I think you're nice." The few words that Starshine spoke had hit Trixie like a truck and left her completely speechless. In the past ten years, nopony, not even herself, had said such words of kindness to her. And the words were spoken with honesty; looking into Starshine's eyes confirmed that. "T-that's nice of you to say, but I'm not that great a pony," Trixie stuttered as she gently pushed Starshine off of her. "As you saw in the town, I am prone to violent bursts of rage and I am mostly a recluse. I'm no better than anypony else." "If that was true, then you wouldn't have stopped Blackjack and given me a new home," Starshine reminded her with a smile. "You may not be like one of the Elements, but you're a kind pony in your own right. Now come on, let's go practice some magic!" Trixie watched the colt bounce off of her couch and over to the practice dummy, having no idea what to think. The words of kindness were like a refreshing stream in the middle of a desert to her, and she had no idea how to respond. A thin smile crossed her lips as she stood up and followed the small foal to her training area. 'Nothing can keep him down, can it?' she thought to herself as she began to help him train. /W\ The air in this part of the forest felt much different from other places Trixie had been, and she could feel a faint magical energy flowing through the trees, making her on edge a bit as she and Starshine sat on the front of the moving wagon. Her eyes scanned the glittering forest for danger, while his were wide-eyed as he marveled at all the amazing lights. "I never thought that I would see a forest this pretty," Starshine muttered out loud as he gazed at all the tress lined with a mystic light. His gaze wandered to the butterflies that looked like glowing balls of light as they flew by him. "How can a forest possibly look this cool?" "The magic that I assume you can feel running through the air, also runs through the tress and the beasts that inhabit this land," Trixie explained as a group of glowing pigs ran by the wagon. "If something lives close to magic for most of its life, it will eventually become a part of that magic. And these animals and plants have been here for thousands of years." Starshine 'oo'ed' and continued to look at the animals again while Trixie was looking for the temple that was supposed to be near the center of this forest. "So the temple that you're looking for is here, right?" Starshine eventually asked when Trixie growled in frustration at the lack of temple. "What makes you think you can find it if Star-Swirl hid it? How are you certain it's here?" "Three reasons: One, because the map says so. Two, can you not feel the magic? It is older than the princesses themselves. This would be the perfect place for a unicorn looking to unlock the secrets of magic," Trixie explained before a nasty frown crossed her face. "And three, if I don't find it soon, I'm going to burn this entire place down until I do!" Starshine backed away from Trixie a bit as she said this and resumed scanning the forest, leaving the unicorn to fume by herself. He narrowed his eyes a bit when he thought he saw a shimmer off in the distance, thinking for a moment that he had seen... "I think I saw the temple," he said to her. Trixie looked to where he pointed with a bit of confusion. "I don't see anything." "I'm telling you, it's there. Come on, trust me," he begged her. Trixie gave in and turned the wagon towards where he said the temple was, not certain if she should believe him. But all of her doubts were cast aside when the wagon slammed into an invisible barrier, knocking it back, while simultaneously throwing the azure mare off of the front and into the dirt. "See? I told you," Starshine said happily as he hopped past Trixie, who was trying to get all the dirt out of her mouth. "Yes...you seem to be correct," Trixie muttered as she walked up to the barrier and placed her hoof against it, feeling the magic that was preventing her from seeing or getting to what it protected. "What I wish to know is, how did you see the barrier when I could not?" "I don't know, I guess I was just looking for it harder than you," Starshine said with a shrug as he poked the barrier as well, not making any more progress than Trixie. "I hope you have a spell to get us past this, because I already contributed." "Yes, I think I have just the spell," Trixie said with a smile as she opened up her spell book and flipped to the page on what was known about Star-Swirl's spells. Once she had found the page, she pointed her horn at the barrier and created a light blue magic on her horn, which she then fired at the barrier. The barrier did not shatter like she thought it would, but instead created an opening that the two of them would be able to fit through. "Looks like we have to leave the wagon behind for now," Trixie said as she put her book in her coat and walked through the opening. "Come, I do not know how long this will stay open." Starshine hopped in after her and looked up, his jaw hitting the ground at what he saw. "Is that the temple?" he whispered in awe as he looked up at the massive stone structure that greeted his eyes. "Yes, it is," Trixie said with a frown, thinking of how odd this temple was. Unlike the last two temples she had visited, this one was far more grand and pristine, as if the curse of time had not touched it at all. In fact, it was in better condition after a few centuries than were some of the buildings in places she knew. The entrance to the temple sat directly in front of them; two giant brass doors that were much too shiny for their age. "Stay close to me. I do not know if there are any traps on the outside, but Star-Swirl is notorious for setting up traps in his temples." Starshine nodded and got closer to Trixie as she moved closer to the doors, being careful to scan the area around them to make sure that none of the traps were out here. When all came up safe, she used her magic against the doors to no avail, leaving her fuming once again. "Curses, my magic can't get these doors open and there is no riddle or clue telling me how to do it," Trixie growled as she tried spell after spell unsuccessfully against the door. While she did that, Starshine started to look at the door as well, noticing something that he wasn't sure how Trixie had missed. "Um, Trixie?" Starshine said, waving Trixie over. "There are five symbols here. Can't you see them?" Trixie narrowed her eyes, looking at the spot where Starshine was pointing. Slowly, she began to see what he was talking about, as five odd symbols appeared before her eyes. Once she could see them, they became much more radiant and didn't require her to squint. "That is odd," Trixie muttered as she looked over each symbol individually. "The symbols are out of place. This one should go here and this one should go..." Trixie began to move the hidden symbols around with her magic until they were in places that made sense to her. The moment she had placed the last one into place, a low rumbling could be heard as the two doors swung open. Both Trixie and Starshine stared into the darkness that awaited them, both a bit hesitant to enter. "Ladies first," Starshine said to Trixie with a bow, with Trixie responding by rolling her eyes at the foal as she walked past. "Well, aren't you just the gentlecolt," she said with a smirk as she walked inside, using her magic to light up the room as she did so. She and Starshine were in a massive chamber with a single giant statue of a minotaur in the center, with no doors or exits on any side of them. "This feels like a..." Trixie began before the doors behind them slammed shut. "Trap." Starshine gasped as a sphere of blue appeared in front of them, hovering just out of hoofs reach as it observed them. A thin beam of magic came out of it and passed through Trixie, neither pony moving. "What's it doing?" Starshine asked her. "It is scanning us, but I am not sure why," she whispered back as the sphere turned green for her and then moved over to Starshine, scanning him as well. But unlike Trixie, when it had scanned Starshine, its light turned red and it began to hum with power. Before it could do anything else, Trixie fired a blast of magic into the sphere and sent it flying into the wall on the other side of the room where it shattered into pieces. "What was that thing?" Starshine asked before the room began to tremble, and both ponies looked up to see pieces of stone beginning to fall off of the statue of the minotaur, its eyes beginning to glow red. "A sentry probably...and that is not good," Trixie said as the minotaur burst out of the stone that held it and spun to face Starshine, its red eyes glaring at him as it got him in its sights. It let out a roar and charged at the colt, but it had barely taken two steps before twin columns of azure fire burned the creature and sent it skidding across the ground. "You will not touch him, beast," Trixie said in a cold tone as her eyes glowed with power, picking the minotaur up and throwing it into another wall. Much to her and Starshine's surprise though, the minotaur got right back up and charged at the colt again, who Trixie teleported out of the way before the creature could crush him. "Why is it only coming after me? What did I do to it?" he asked Trixie as she teleported the both of them across the chamber and away from the creature. "I do not know, but stay here," Trixie said as she teleported back in front of the beast. "If you wish for a fight so badly, I will gladly give you one." But again to her surprise, the beast ignored her entirely and re-focused its gaze on the small colt in the corner of the room, letting loose another roar as it tried to chase him down, only to run head first into one of Trixie's barriers. "Did you not understand what I said? YOU FACE ME NOW!" Trixie roared in fury as she sent giant spikes out of the ground to impale the creature, with the minotaur only barely getting out of the way in time. Trixie's horn glowed again and the ground suddenly came to life, with stone hands grabbing the minotaur to hold it in place. But with a flex of its muscles the creature broke free, leaving Trixie angry and confused. "It can completely counter any spell I throw at it, and direct magical attacks aren't working," she said to herself as she picked up pieces of the broken statue off the ground and hurled them at the beast. "Why don't you stay down?" The beast once again ignored her and brushed through her magic, hurtling itself towards Starshine once again. "Stop!" Trixie yelled as she threw azure chains around its neck and body, sliding on the floor as the creature slowly dragged her while it tried to grab Starshine. It raised both of its hands over the terrified colt and prepared to bring them down, its red eyes glaring into the colt's. "I said STOP!" Trixie roared. Then, to both her and Starshine's surprise, the minotaur lowered both of its hands and turned to face Trixie with green eyes, performing a small bow to her before it exploded into a cloud of sand. Starshine slowly walked over to Trixie, breathing heavily with terror but unharmed. "What just happened?" he asked her. "I think we activated one of Star-Swirl's traps," Trixie replied as she sat down. "No, I meant why did it listen to you?" Starshine asked her. Trixie had no answer for him, so all she could do was shrug. The both of them then heard the sound of another door being opened, and they turned to see that one of the "walls" was actually a hidden passage. "And it seems that we now have a place to go," Trixie said as she stood back up. "Stay close to me and if anything tries to scan you again, don't let it." Trixie made her horn glow brighter as the two walked through the doorway into a long hallway, the light from her horn showing numerous carvings and images on the wall. "What are those?" Starshine asked Trixie. "Ancient carvings, maybe hundreds of years old," Trixie replied as she kept her eyes forward, waiting for something else to leap out at them. Their progress was impeded as they came to another door at the end of the hallway made entirely of anti-source that caused Trixie's horn to flicker. "Hmm, if a door is made of a material to stop magic, then there must be a powerful something on the other side," Trixie muttered aloud as she got closer to the door, looking over it carefully. In the center of the door lay four slots for an item to be placed and a picture of a temple next to each slot. "That looks like a trident," Starshine muttered as he looked at the door too. "And that looks like a horn. And...I don't know what that is." "That is a corrupted claw, the prized possession of the changeling queen," Trixie said with a frown as she figured out what this door was. "The items that are missing from the door are what's required to get to the other side. And these items are not easy to get. The trident belongs to the sea-horses who vanished long ago. The horn is said to be found in the land of titans from which no pony has ever returned. But the fourth item is located in a very familiar temple." "What temple is that?" Starshine asked as he looked at something on the floor with interest. "That is not important right now. If I want to get through this door I need the items, but some of these cultures have been lost for centuries or are impossible to find. No pony has ever survived a trip to the land of titans far in the south, just like how no pony has ever found the hive of the changelings. Plus, Atlantis was sunk by Sombra nearly one thousand years ago. There's no way to know where it could be now." "But we can go to the temple that you've already been to, right?" Starshine asked as Trixie looked at the image of that temple again. The instructions showed a pony who was battling a dark reflection of itself, then the same pony diving into a pool into what looked like a mirrored world on the other side. Finally, the pony had to defeat a floating red orb that shot red flames towards the pony. "Come, I know what to do now," Trixie said as she spun around and headed for the exit, Starshine right on her hooves as she passed the chamber of reflection without a second glance. They both made it back outside to see that the hole in the barrier was still there. They passed through it and Trixie got her wagon moving again at twice the speed it had been moving before. Only after she had set its course and had placed her book away did she finally answer Starshine's question. "I have not been in the temple before, but I do know which temple it is. Morgaine said that it was not worth our time to go see what was inside of it, but it seems that there was something we missed." "Hold on, you still haven't answered my question," Starshine huffed as he jumped in front of Trixie and pouted at her. "What is the temple called?" "Oh, very well," Trixie said with a growl as she grabbed another book off the shelf and levitated it down in front of them. It held the Tome of the Worlds and showed a pony how to cross dimensions. "It is called the Temple of Reflections." /M\ Deep within the confines of her own mind, a certain sorcerous was at complete peace, having managed to block out the screams of the other inmates--be they physical screams or mental screams. Despite the walls of her cell being made out of anti-source, she could still somewhat access her magic, but not to a degree where she could escape. But for the time being, she was content. Except...for a nagging little thought in the back of her head that was telling her that she was forgetting something...or someone. 'It is not important,' she thought to herself as the martian came around to do a check on all the prisoners. 'It's not like I care about Trixie any longer...wait, where did that name come from?' She tried to recall who this Trixie was, but her memory failed her and she went back to her meditation, once again content with her life.