For Her Mistakes

by Onomonopia

Ancient Words

Trixie's eyes widened a bit when she entered the first room of the temple. The sight of all the bones of past explorers and changelings that had tried to get in riled her a bit. But with a quick shake of her head, she strengthened her resolve and headed deeper inside, finding the first test that Star-Swirl had put in place for those who wished to enter. On the door to the next room was written more ancient changeling.

'If you who reads this wishes to enter, you must make a choice of these three items. But each of the items comes with a price that may be beyond what you are able to pay. But if you can triumph over past failures, then you may gain entry.'

"What the Hades does that mean?" Trixie asked herself as she looked behind her, while four pedestals rose out of the floor, each one with a different item on top of it. On one of them was a golden scepter that was encrusted with jewels, that would make every collector in Equestria salivate over them. The next item was a torch that glowed with the power of many lights, filling the room with color that her eyes didn't truly believe were real. And the final item was a blade that was of the purest steel, tainted red with the blood of those that it had slain. The last was empty. 'So one of these items is supposed to get me through the door? But which one?'

Trixie looked at each of the pedestals carefully, not seeing a difference in any of the items that would give her some clue as to which one was the correct choice. But something that did give away which one might be the right choice, was the number of skeletons that lay at the base of each pedestal. Her observation showed her that there were a large number of skeletons at the base of both the sword and the scepter, but only a few at the base of the torch.

'But that doesn't help me,' she thought to herself with a frown as she sat down, trying to think of the solution. 'While there may be fewer bodies at the base of the torch one, all that tells me is that fewer changelings chose that pillar. But the fact that there are bodies means that the torch is just as lethal as the other two. What is the right solution?' Trixie looked from the items to the door, remembering that it said that each item came with a price. 'So what if I took all three?' she thought as she stood back up. 'If taking one of them killed you, then I'm better off trying a different approach. It's my only hope.' As she thought this, she used her magic to pick up all three of the items at once, looking to the door as she did so. It stayed unmoving for a moment before the words on it vanished and were replaced with new ones.

Wrong choice.

"Crap," Trixie muttered as the room began to shake violently and the sounds of the bones bouncing off the ground echoed throughout the chamber. Trixie turned to see that those same bones were also re-assembling themselves into their former bodies, leaving her stuck in a room filled with an army of angry skeletons. "Just my luck," she growled as the first skeleton leapt at her. She chucked the scepter into its jaw and took its head clean off, causing the rest of the body to fall apart as well.

"At least it's good for something," she said as she threw the torch into another, setting it ablaze. Now that she had awakened the dead, she figured her best hope was to go with what the rest of the passage had said--about defeating past mistakes, which she figured to be the skeletons. She rolled out of the way of one of the attackers and stumbled into a skeleton that hadn't returned from the dead, knocking a small book out of it that she didn't see fly from its grasp. She swung the sword next, but the moment it struck the skeleton she felt an agonizing place in her shoulder, which was where she had struck the skeleton.

'So that's the price, huh?' she thought to herself as she threw the sword away--while she placed a barrier around herself to keep the undead back and attended to her wound. Healing magic wasn't her specialty, but she managed to cauterize the wound to the point where she didn't have to worry about bleeding out. 'Whoever lives by the sword dies by the sword? Hate to think what the other two would do to me.' Once she was healed, she expanded the barrier in a blast of magic the pushed all of the skeletons back and shattered some of them against the walls. Even though she was completely outnumbered, she still could hold off the army with her magic to the point where they couldn't get close to her.

"Is this all you have got?" she asked with a triumphant laugh as her magic tore through more of them, with her best spell being the simple explosion spell that hit with concussive force. "I've fought rocks with more skill and power than all of you." As she said this, she had almost gotten rid of all the skeletons on the room, with the last one keeping its distance from her. "What's the matter, afraid to face me?" The skeleton responded by kicking a number of bones at her, to which she replied with a chuckle as she caught them with her magic.

"Come now, you'll have to do better than-" Her words were cut off as the torch she had thrown aside had hit her in the flank, having been kicked by the skeleton after it had distracted her with the bones. "Outsmarted by a bag of bones," she muttered as the chamber began to shake once again, this time with a wall opening to let loose a massive cloud of darkness that swarmed through the room. She placed a barrier over herself when the darkness got too close, watching with a smile as it bounced off of her shield with ease. The darkness then moved towards the bones and began to swallow them into itself, growing bigger and bigger as Trixie figured out what it was doing.

"It's always some sort of giant creature in these temples, isn't it?" she asked the darkness as the bones began to stick out of it's sides like armor and a massive skull formed its head, allowing it to turn on Trixie while looking at her with its empty eye sockets. "Alright you monster, I've fought bigger and I've fought badder. Let's do this." The skeleton monster hissed as it shot up the walls, moving along them like a bony snake as it shot bits and pieces of other skeletons towards Trixie, who was forced to deflect the projectiles with her magic to avoid being hit. She took aim with her concussive spell and fired, knocking its arm of bones off when the spell impacted the creature.

"What do you say to that?" she taunted with a smile, only to watch in horror as it regrew the arm with more bones that it scraped off the ground. It hissed and slithered towards her, its skull growing larger and more deadly as it passed over more and more bones. Trixie took a desperate shot as she fired a beam of magic at the creature, snarling as it dodged the attack. Her spell did hit something however, as the torch that had been used to summon this beast was struck by her magic. Upon impact the torch let out a flash of blinding light, causing Trixie to cover her eyes and the shadow monster to howl in pain as it covered itself up in an effort to block the light.

"So, you don't like the light, do you?" Trixie asked with a smile as her horn lit up, having an idea of how to both beat the beast and get into the next room. She waited until the beast could see again before she stood in front of the door, her horn glowing in anticipation of its next attack. The creature let out a roar and, just as Trixie predicted, slithered towards her in a fury. "You're done." As she said this, she shot a bolt of magic into the roof that exploded into a massive flash of white that blinded the creature once again, allowing her to roll out of the way of its attack. It shrieked as it covered its eyes and ran skull first into the door, shattering both the door and the creature's head at the same time. Trixie smiled as the door came down on top of the beast, burying it beneath the rock.

"You weren't so tough," she muttered as she walked over the rubble to the room where the prize lay, smiling as the stones never moved.

/T\

In the castle's dungeon, Sombra had been sitting motionless for nearly ten minutes, causing both the guards and Starshine to become concerned. One of the guards walked up to the cell and banged against the bars, trying to get Sombra's attention.

"Hey, wake up," he ordered as Sombra opened one eye to look at him. "The Queen is going to be here soon and I don't want you being rude to her." Sombra grumbled at him as he turned around before turning his attention to Starshine, who was looking at him with worry.

"Are we going to die?" Starshine whispered. Sombra thought about it for a minute before he let a smile cross his face as he pulled the colt in close.

"I am not going to die here, but depending on your answer to my question, you just might," he said with a wicked smile that grew even larger when Starshine looked at him in confusion. "See, I can get out of here, but I don't know whether or not I should bring you along. So I'm going to make you a deal. If you listen to what I say on the way out without question, I'll help you escape as well. But if not, I leave you here for Chrysalis."

"Is that all I have to do?" Starshine asked with suspicion, causing Sombra to smile even wider.

"Of course not. You also have to keep what I am about to do a secret from Trixie." Sombra saw Starshine's eyes narrow at this, but he cut him off before he could start. "Of course, if you disagree you will never see her again and she might die down in the temple. But if you agree to stay silent, I'll go there and get her out. Whaddya say?" He knew that he had Starshine hooked when he mentioned that Trixie might be in danger, but he had thrown in the part "to save her" as a precaution for himself. He might need her help to get out of the place alive.

"Alright, but I'll only keep quiet on whatever you're about to do," Starshine said with a frown.

"Excellent," Sombra said as he walked over to the cell bars and looked out at the guards, whistling for them to come over. "Alright boys, I want to make a bet. I bet the two of you that I can get out of this cell, kill the two of you and be gone before your queen gets back. Whaddya say?"

"Please, the bars are re-enforced steel with magic coursing through them," one of the guards said with a snicker. "There's no way you could-"

"Ning Gth Li," Sombra whispered aloud, causing a massive bolt of lightning to go off in the cell and hurl the guards across the room into the wall. Sombra then stepped through the now-wrecked bars as he looked down at the two guards, who were struggling to get up.

"Looks like I win," he panted as he prepared to say something else, but then Starshine tackled him in the side to stop him. "What are you doing? If I don't kill them now they will only alert the queen."

"And the energy you use to kill them will only drain you further," Starshine said in reply, still trying to wrap his head around what Sombra had just done, "you can kill them and waste your time or you can come with me and try to escape. Your choice." Starshine took off as he said this, leaving Sombra to watch him go with a thin smile on his face.

'Well played,' he thought to himself as he ran out the door after the colt, knowing that he had been right in telling Sombra to conserve his strength. 'I do not know how long I can use these spells, so I will have to conserve,' he though to himself as he quickly caught up with Starshine, slowing down to run along side him. "Alright kid if you want to stay alive, you need to--DUCK!" Somrba pushed Starshine out of the way as a blast of green magic flew down the hallway, burning a hole through the wall behind them.

"SOMBRA! YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" Chrysalis howled from down the hallway.

"Lalw," Somba growled, causing a wall of black bricks to shoot out of the ground in front of her. Her howls of fury could still be heard from the other side, but Sombra and Starshine were already running in the opposite direction as fast as they could.

"We need to get to Trixie," Starshine panted as he ran, fear allowing him to keep up with Sombra. "Do you know where the entrance to the temple they were talking about is?"

"Pal E Im!" Sombra roared as he rounded the corner to see a number of changeling guards waiting for them. As soon as the words left his mouth, spears made of stone shot out of the ground and goured the changelings on the end of them. Sombra grabbed Starshine and ran down another corridor as more guards showed up to try and stop them.

"It's been a while since I was last here and the place has changed quite a bit, but I think that I can find the way," Sombra said as the two of them ran by two massive staircases that led to a grand hall. At the top of one of those staircases, a changeling leapt out from behind a statue and tackled Sombra to the ground, drawing a dagger that he aimed at Sombra's heart, while his other hoof pinned Somrba down by the neck, preventing him from speaking.

'I can't believe it. Me, the greatest king to ever live, is going to be killed by a hoofsoldier in the changeling castle. Chrysalis will probably hang my body from the rafters,' he thought in a second as the knife came down. But much to his and the changeling's surprise, Starshine tackled the changeling and sent it crashing down the stairs and helped Sombra up.

"Thanks for the save, kid. Didn't know you cared," Sombra joked with a smile as he looked down at the changeling who was getting up. "Ind B." The green drapes that covered the windows flew towards the changeling and quickly tied it up, allowing Sombra to stagger to the next hallway.

"I don't, but you're the only chance I have of getting out of here," Starshine said as he supported some of Sombra's weight and helped him forward, all the while thinking about the magic that he had seen. "Plus, you're the only pony that can help Trixie out. So what kind of magic are you using? It's like nothing--"

"Remember your promise, kid. No questions," Sombra reminded him as he shook Starshine off and continued to move forward, figuring that he was getting close to the garden by the foliage that was out the window. He needed to find Trixie and fast, but as he reached a room that he remembered was the weak part of the castle, he couldn't help but say,

"Vife Ni Tonatede."

/T\

Trixie looked on in amazement at the room in which she found herself. It was filled with dozens of images that showed the ponies and changelings working together and helping each other out in desperate situations. The great flood that nearly swallowed all of Equestria, the battle with the dragons, and an image that showed both a pony and a changeling standing with other creatures, each of them holding an Element of Harmony.

"This must be the place where Star-Swirl and the changelings agreed to make peace all those years ago," Trixie muttered as she walked into the center of the six-sided room, looking at the white claw that rested on a pedestal in the center of the room, giving off a soft light that was complimented by the light that her horn was casting. "And this must be the claw, that I need to open the final temple. But is it a trap like the others?" Trixie gently lifted the claw off of the pedestal, waiting for the worst. But to her surprise, nothing happened.

"Well that's good, I have had enough excitement for today," she said as she turned around to leave.

'But the day is not yet done.' Trixie yelped in surprise as she finished turning to come face-to-hood with the silver mare, who had once again materialized out of thin air. 'You still have to escape the castle with your life.'

"Why do I need to?" Trixie asked her while walking past the mare. "Chrysalis knows what I'll do to her if she tried anything."

'She has already put your comrades in her prison and has two guards awaiting you at the top of the stairs,' the silver mare informed her, causing Trixie to growl as she ran towards the stairs to help Starshine. 'They'll be hidden on the left when you go up. Thought I'd let you know.' Trixie was in a fury as she raced up the stairs back to the castle, barely even stopping to blast the two changelings that had been waiting for her at the top. She rushed into the castle to see magic burns on the walls and some distortion to the ground. She activated her tracking spell and quickly found that Sombra and Starshine were heading towards her. With a grunt she ran to meet them, finding them in a circular room surrounded by changelings.

"Well, this is a fine mess that you've gotten us into," Sombra said to Starshine as he leaned against the colt, just to remain vertical.

"How is this my fault?" Starshine asked as the changelings began to close in. "All I did was follow your orders."

"I'm the pony that broke the Queen of the Changeling's heart after making her immortal," Sombra reminded him as the changelings attacked. "I don't always have good ideas."

"Then here's one! GET DOWN!" Starshine and Sombra threw themselves to the ground as a wave of magic shot over their heads and struck down the changelings that had attacked them. Trixie then leapt into the center of the fray, sending bolts of azure into any changeling who tried to get up.

"I wondered if you'd show," Sombra said with a smirk, but his smirk vanished once Chrysalis appeared at the top of a balcony overlooking them."

"SOMBRA! I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD!" she roared as she began firing every spell she could think of at them.

"Time to go," Trixie said as she picked up Sombra and Starshine with her magic and bolted for the exit, relying on going to places that weren't filled with guards to find her way out. Eventually, she came across a window that showed the maze in the distance and Trixie figured that this was their best way out. "Everypony hold on!" she yelled as she leapt out of the window, dropping Starshine and Sombra so that she could use her magic to create a slide that safely got all three of them to the ground.

"Come on, we're almost out!" she yelled as she and Starshine ran towards the maze, but Sombra stood back with a smile as he counted,

"Three. Two. One..." A massive explosion went off inside of the castle, causing thick columns of smoke to appear from nearly every window. He smirked as he heard Chrysalis curse him from over the ruckus as he rejoined Starshine and Trixie at the edge of the maze.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Trixie said as she tried to remember the way through the maze, but watched out of the corner of her eye as Sombra grabbed his bag that he had hidden the day before. "Argh, I can't remember the way through. I need more time."

"Sorry, Trixie, but time is something that we don't have," Starshine said as he pulled on Trixie's tail, her eyes shrinking in fear as she turned to see hundreds of changelings coming out of the smoking castle and flying at them. "Trixie, what do we do?" Trixie lowered her head as she tried to think, while Sombra watched the army come towards him, reaching into his bag with a frown. He didn't want to use this item right now considering how close to the blast radius they would be, but it was his only hope to escape.

"I don't know, Starshine," Trixie answered as she let her horn begin to glow, preparing for a fight. "Sombra and I will keep them busy as long as we can while you run. It's the only chance you have."

'Then perhaps I should help.'

From a distance, Chrysalis watched in disbelief as a silver energy surrounded the three ponies before a blinding flash of silver went off. When she could see again, she found to her endless rage that Sombra was once again gone. She let loose a scream to the sky in rage, while her changelings looked at the spot where the ponies had vanished in confusion.

/T\

When Trixie opened her eyes again, she found that both she and the other two ponies were standing in front of her wagon, with the spell she had cast around it still going strong. Starshine and Sombra looked around in confusion, but Trixie could still hear the changelings in the distance and knew that they had to go.

"Alright you two, into the wagon," she ordered as she lowered the shield and threw open the door. "We need to get out of here before any more of the changelings come. Let's go!" Sombra and Starshine didn't argue as they ran inside, but Trixie turned around and looked at the silver mare with a frown.

"Why did you help me?" she asked the mare.

'Because you needed my help, just as I may need your help in the future,' she cryptically replied. Trixie narrowed her eyes at the answer, but then Chrysalis' blood-curdling scream reached her ears. The silver mare vanished once again, leaving Trixie to return to her wagon and get it to move as fast as it could.

/T\

"You realize what must be done?" Chrysalis asked the changeling in the black scarf kneeling in front of her.

"Yes, Queen Chrysalis, she does," another changeling to her side answered for the kneeling changeling.

"Good. If you can kill Sombra and the other two ponies with him, then you will can come back. If not...I will send the others in your place." The changeling on its knee nodded and vanished in a blink. Once she was gone, Chrysalis began to chuckle to herself.

"Oh yes Sombra, you have escaped me, but you can never escape those I send after you. For only death can stop them."

Comments

[Uzume Tennouboshi]

Damn, between helping Scootaloo in It Runs In The Family and not only telling Trixie what the situation was here, but also directly intervening to get her, Sombra, and Starshine to Trixie's wagon, these two stories are the most that silver mare has directly intervened in any of your stories!

And perhaps the correct answer to that choice Trixie faced was whatever used to be on the fourth pedestal. Great, now I'm going to be wondering what it could have been.

[Grahf]

yeah the answer to the riddle was the empty platform cause if you had to pay for the item on a platform then the 4th one you would have payed nothing to get nothing.

[kniznik]

3888769 Nothing. royalty,power and conquest. When choosing with them around it's always best to choose nothing.

Well this was a fun read. I'm pleasantry surprised that Starshine hasn't befriended Chrysalis children as some of us had expected.

[Kenshinryuu]

Yeah, I'm also thinking pedastal number four was the way to go. Why mention three items when there are four pedestals???
CHANGELING NINJA!!!!! Cool, I can't wait to see her in action. Though if Starshine can work his "Talk people into seeing things his way" magic on her she might become an ally. Then she'll have to help the group fight off the other changeling assassins.

[FleetlordAvatar]

Sombra's magic is a variant on Zatanna's backwards spell speak isn't it?

[Onomonopia]

3890733
Half hers, half another who will be mentioned.

[Demonjack123]

she felt an agonizing place in her shoulder, which was where she had struck the skeleton.

holy shit imagine if she went to decapitate it! >.< would be a premature end lol

[Demonjack123]

3888769 That book in the dead ponies hands maybe?

[Mr-Astounding]

Achievements earned:
No Bones about it (get past the puzzle room)
Score = Love (escape the Changeling stronghold)