"I don't know about this, Sombra," Xion said with some hesitation as she looked towards the entrance of the small village, hood covering her face as best it could. "The last time I was in a populated area, it ended with the both of us running for our lives while a bunch of ponies with spears chased us. And I have a bad feeling that this will end similarly."
'And if it does, you can use those impressive keyblade skills to fend them off. Or kill them all. Whichever you prefer,' Sombra replied with a small laugh. Xion braced herself for the chaos that was sure to follow before she walked into the village, doing her best to breath calmly as she entered.
The village was smaller than the Crystal Empire, which was to be expected, but what Xion hadn't been expecting was for every pony to be on high alert. Guards ran past her with rusty armor and weapons that hadn't seen use in a long time. Ponies walked in groups with at least one unicorn in them, with all of them watching the shadows with close eyes. And the moment she came into view, everypony in the town turned and glared at her, giving Xion a moment to realize that she would most likely have to fight her way out of the town.
"Remind me again why I have to do this?" Xion whispered to the horn in her pocket, who chuckled slightly at the sight of all of the ponies trying to look tough.
'Because an old friend of mine lives here, an immortal being that has aided me in the past...for a price,' Sombra replied in a whisper as well, knowing full well that the ponies were watching closely. 'Their house is that one over there with the red roof. Hasn't changed it in a thousand years. That's where we're heading. She has what I seek.'
"Problem. These ponies look like their going to trying and attack at any moment," Xion replied as some of the ponies began to close in on her, making her decide whether or not she pulled out the keyblade then and there. "And I would prefer not to attack them. I'm already on shaky ground with them already."
'Then this is the perfect time for another lesson,' Sombra replied before a stream of darkness poured from Xion's coat pocket. The ponies in the area only had a moment to cry out before the smoky darkness overwhelmed them. Xion was about to yell at Sombra, but then the darkness pulled away and the ponies were left with little clouds of darkness floating around their eyes. They blinked in confusion and began to walk away from where Xion stood, muttering to themselves.
"What did you do?" Xion asked Sombra, only for her not to receive an answer. Angling her back so that it faced the ponies, Xion reached into her pocket and pulled out Sombra's horn, which was a dull orange and seemed to be cracked slightly. "Sombra, are you alright? You're never silent for this long."
'Go...to...house...' Sombra replied in a weak tone, one that made Xion concerned for the horn. But with little other choice, Xion placed the horn in her pocket and walked towards the house. She eyed the ponies of the village the entire time she walked towards the house, but to her amazement she found that none of the ponies so much as gave her a second glance. Even the ones that she walked towards moved out of her way at the last second, the darkness still floating around their eyes.
Xion reached the house with the red roof, but when she did she found it was so much more than that. Plants grew along the side of the house, but each of them was a different plant that seemed to be older than the house. Different brick work made up the house, with different styles built into it. Then there was the air around the house, air that was ancient and powerful, getting Xion to instantly be on guard as she reached up and knocked against a green door.
"Come in," a voice said from within as the door creaked open, getting Xion to stare into the darkness for a moment before she entered within. If she had thought that the house was odd on the outside, the inside of the house made Xion's eyes widen with shock.
What she noticed first was the jars. There were hundreds of them, each of them holding different things within them. Heads, claws, goo: almost anything she could think of was within the jars. But what truly drew Xion's eye, aside from the ugly green curtains and rugs, was the being sitting in one of the chairs, a being that had a serpents lower half and the upper half of a pony, one with a long, black mane and a crimson coat.
"What do we have here? Another creature of the night?" the serpent mare asked as she slithered close to Xion, who summoned her keyblade and pointed it at the serpent, who stopped her advance and looked at the blade with interest. "And a creature that wields a strange weapon, one that holds both light and darkness within it. How curioussssss."
"I'm here because I need something from you. Or rather, he does," Xion began as she took out Sombra's horn and placed it on a table made of glass to her side, getting the mare's eyebrows to raise before she began to laugh to herself. Faster than Xion thought possible the serpent lady swiped the horn from the table and held it close to her slit like eyes.
"Oh the might king of the Crystal Empire, reduced to such a state as this," the serpent laughed with joy, before tossing the horn back to Xion before she turned towards her jar and began to shift through the numerous glasses. "But now that I have seen him, I know what he is here for. Heaven's tears."
"What's that?" Xion asked, keeping her blade pointed at the serpent at all times. The serpent lady paid the weapon no mind as she pulled a jar from the shelf, one that was filled with a bluish black liquid that had specks of white within it, mirroring the stars at night.
"Heaven's tears," the serpent lady replied as she placed the jar on the table, getting Xion to stare at it as the contents within circle inside of the glass and made it look like a swirling cosmos. "An item that can be used to infuse the strongest of items together flawlessly. And if Sombra is planning what I think he is planning, then he will be in desperate need of this."
"Um, thanks. We'll just take that and be on our way," Xion muttered as she reached out for the jar, but the serpent lady chuckled as she pulled the jar closer to her. "Let me guess, there's something that you want in return and you want me to go get it for you, don't you?"
"How clever of you. That's exactly what I want," the serpent lady said with a toothy smile, one that made Xion shiver slightly. The serpent pulled out a map and placed it on the table in front of Xion, who noticed that it was a map of the area, with a large, red X on a certain point of it. "Here lies a mountain where I gathered my minerals for my potions and other items. But recently there have been...creatures there that have made it impossible to obtain my minerals. I would like you to be rid of them."
"How do you know that I can get rid of them?" Xion asked, even though she had already figured out what the creatures were and that she was already going to have to take care of them.
"Sombra would not choose you unless there was something special about you. And from the weapon you wield, I can see that you are indeed special," the mare replied with a chuckle as she stared at the forest styled keyblade. "So yes, I believe that you are the perfect one for the job. Even more so than that pink pony that offered to help me a day ago."
"Another pony was willing to fight those monsters?" Xion asked with some moderate surprise.
"Yes. And I will promise you the same thing I promised her, just to sweeten the deal," the mare said as she reached behind her and pulled out a keychain, one that had a bright blue balloon making up most of the chain. Xion's eyes narrowed as she realized what the serpent lady held, getting the serpent to chuckle. "Ah, I see this is far more valuable to you than it is her. Well, if you wish to get it, then you must slay those monsters. Off you go."
The lady let out another laugh as she coiled around a column and ascended to the second floor of her house, leaving Xion to watch her go before she turned and exited the house, shivering once she was outside of the house. "Okay, that was super creepy. Sombra, you awake yet?"
'Give me another five minutes,' Sombra grunted, only to be shaken awake when Xion shook Sombra quickly in her hand. 'Fine, I'm up I'm up. Ugh, so did you manage to work out a deal with my dear Gorgana?'
"That her name? She never said it," Xion muttered.
'Of course not, nopony in this town knows that she's a gorgon. All any of them see is her upper half and even then she's often cloaked in darkness,' Sombra explained in a tired tone.
"What about her eyes?"
'Contacts. Speaking of things in the darkness, I take it my blinding spell worked to perfection?' Sombra asked, getting Xion to look around at all of the ponies that were walking right past her without so much as a look.
"Is that what you did? I wondered why everypony stopped looking at me with murder in their eyes," Xion muttered to herself, banishing the keyblade as she quickly moved towards the edge of town. "But that spell of yours seems to have taken a lot out of you. You were quiet for a full ten minutes before you spoke again. I've never heard you quiet that long."
'Hahaha, sometimes I wonder why I keep you around,' Sombra replied in a grumbling tone. Xion was about to reply before a newspaper floated in front of her, getting Xion to look down at the horn with confusion. 'I snatched this from Gorgana's house when she wasn't looking. Take a look at the front page and see what your "good deeds" have done for us.'
"You stole from one of your oldest friends?" Xion asked in disbelief as she grabbed the newspaper and looked at the front of it.
'She knew full well what she was letting into her home. Her fault for not nailing it down,' Sombra replied with a laugh, but at that point Xion wasn't listening. She was far too busy reading the headline with both rage and amazement filling up her thoughts.
"Monsters of darkness have been popping up all over Equestria, attacking any and all with a merciless wrath, while doing everything in their power to take the hearts of ponies," Xion read, ignoring the king of darkness. "Regular weapons cannot hurt the creatures, but magic has been found to repel the creatures if a strong enough spell is used. All ponies are advised to stay around at least one unicorn, preferably more. Well, at least they've figured out that the Heartless don't like magic."
'Yeah, and if you keep reading you'll find that Twilight was the one that found out that the Heartless don't like magic, not Celestia or Luna. Another reason to trap those two far away from anypony with brains and let me take control of the world once again,' Sombra said, getting Xion to scroll down to the part he was talking about. 'Did you read the part that they mentioned about you?'
"Yeah, I read it. A being in a black cloak has also been spotted along with the creatures of darkness and it seems to be far more powerful than them. Extreme caution should be used in dealing with the creature. Do not engage unless an Ambassador of Harmony or a princess is nearby," Xion read with some heat in her voice, before she crumpled the paper and kicked it away from her. "I can't believe it. Help some ponies out and get labeled as a monster. No good deed, am I right?"
'Hey, I wanted to read the funnies.'
"Ugh, come on, let's go destroy these Heartless and hope that nothing else dangerous shows up to mess up my day. Especially the Maestro," Xion grumbled to herself as she shoved her hands into her pockets and stalked towards the mountains near the town. Once she had been walking for a few minutes and had a chance to calm down, another question crossed her mind.
"So, you know this pink pony, don't you?" Xion asked Sombra.
'Yeah, I do. Pinkie Pie is another of the Ambassadors and one of the more annoying ones at that,' Sombra grumbled in an annoyed tone. 'She's a party animal and has a smile so bright it can kill a being of darkness who looks at her. She's also got...strange abilities that makes her a hassle to deal with.'
"Think I'll have to fight her?"
'Highly unlikely. Pinkie is the friendliest of the Ambassador's by a wide margin, to the point where she comes across as a stalker. She will try to make friends with you, no matter what you do,' Sombra warned Xion, who was having issues seeing how making friends was a bad thing. 'Honestly, if you want to cut her head off before she can say anything along the lines of parties, I'll be your best friend for eternity.'
"Yeah, I'm not going to do that," Xion replied as she looked up to see that they had reached the mountains, getting a sigh to escape her lips as she saw that she was in for a heck of a climb. With nothing else to do but climb, Xion began to scale the cliff before her. For a long time she scaled in silence, amazed that Sombra hadn't said anything yet.
'So do you have any family?' Sombra eventually asked. The question was so sudden and out of left field that Xion had to stop climbing to look down at the horn.
"What?"
'Family? You got any?'
"Where did this come from?"
'Well, just seeing my old friend again reminded me of families and connections and...' Sombra began, before he saw the look Xion was giving him and he let out a laugh. 'Alright, you caught me. I'm just trying to find out more about you, puppet. Since we're going to be stuck together for a while, figure I might as well find out who my buddy is.'
"So if I have any weakness you can exploit them later."
'See, you get me. So come on. Mom? Dad? Brothers or sisters?'
"No...I'm a creation, remember?" Xion said before she started to walk along a small ledge on the side of the mountain. "A science experiment that went horribly wrong. Or horribly right, depending on who you asked."
'See, isn't that better than that whole I'm made of nothing crap you were spewing?'
"For the love of...better. Yeah, that's the word I would use," Xion grumbled as she grabbed hold of a branch and used it to pull herself up to another ledge. "Being used unknowingly to try and kill my best friend while being manipulated to become the ultimate weapon for an organization that wanted to steal the hearts of the worlds. That's better than being made of nothing."
'Whoo, touched a nerve there, did I?' Sombra asked. 'But you mentioned an organization? Care to talk about them?'
"Here's all you need to know. Eleven jerks decided to form a group to get back their hearts and take over the worlds and all of that evil organization crap," Xion muttered while taking a rest on another ledge, staring out across the land as she did so.
'But you said one of them was your best friend. Is this the Roxas I heard you saying in your sleep?' Sombra asked coyly, getting Xion's face to soften as she glanced down at her hands. 'Ah, there's some feelings for this one, eh? Well tell me all about him, then.'
"We were just close friends, nothing else. But...yeah, he was my first friend in the organization," Xion said with a small smile recalling some of the few good memories that she still had. "He helped me...become me, in a way. Then I met Axel and the three of us became a group. We'd do our missions, hang out and eat ice cream together. Those were...the best days I've ever had. And I haven't had that many."
"And then I found out I was created to steal Roxas's power and then be used as a weapon. That's what I was created to be," Xion said with venom, getting Sombra to be slightly surprised by the sudden change in attitude. "And so Roxas and I fought. And he killed me. End of my story. Or it was supposed to be."
'Okay, I've heard that bit at the end before. I still don't care. The organization sounds much more interesting, but you clearly don't want to talk about them. Fine,' Sombra said in a tone Xion couldn't figure out. 'But you've just given me an idea on how to help you with your magic training. See, there's another great emotion that can draw our your inner power. Vengeance.'
"Vengeance?" Xion asked. "I thought you said that negative emotions were a cheap way to access the power of darkness?"
'They are, but vengeance, especially justified vengeance, can be a very powerful force,' Sombra cackled in a menacing tone. 'And you seem to fit that bill perfectly.'
Xion wanted to answer, but before she could an explosion rocked the mountain tops, followed by a stream of confetti that rained down upon the both of them. 'Hold that thought. Seems that Pinkie has found those Heartless that we're here to deal with. Onward, my noble puppet!'
"How am I supposed to find her?" Xion asked as she rose to her feet and took off running.
'Simple, puppet. Follow the confetti.'