//------------------------------//
// Formulating a Plan 
// Story: The Girl That Never Was 
// by Onomonopia 
//------------------------------//

"We there yet?" Xion asked Sombra for the tenth time in an hour, getting a snarl out of the dark king. Seeing that he was in no mood to talk, Xion summoned her keyblade and detached the keychain at the end of it, returning the key to its original Kingdom Key form. She then drew forth the keychain that Rainbow Dash had given to her, staring at it for a long time. Long enough to draw the ire of the dark king.

'Why are you just staring at the stupid thing? Put it on and let's see what new abilities you get,' Sombra snarled, snapping Xion free from her thoughts. Her response was to sigh in a way that made Sombra even more irritated. 'Let me guess, the reason for this mopey attitude is because you've got some moral dilemma? Well out with it, we don't have all day.'

"Those guards lost their hearts because of me," Xion said in a quiet voice.

'What?'

"If I wasn't in this world, or if I had moved faster to find Xaldin, maybe those guards would still be around. Hell, how many ponies here have lost their hearts to the darkness because I was brought to this world?" Xion asked as she held a hand to her head, feeling the weight of all that she had "done" coming down on her. "What if my actions here have only hurt these ponies more than help them? What if-"

'Oh Faust, you're one of those heroes aren't you? The ones that blame themselves for every little thing that goes wrong,' Sombra said in a voice that sounded like he was trying to resist the urge to throw up, which was impressive considering he was a horn. 'You have no reason to blame yourself. You didn't take the hearts of those ponies, you didn't bring Xaldin to this world and you sure as hell have done far more for these idiots than they deserve.'

"But-"

'Don't sass me and listen. Everything...ninety percent of what is going wrong with this world is the Maestro's fault. He's the one that brought the Heartless and your old buddies to this land. We're doing the right thing and trying to get rid of them. Normally I love the idea of darkness taking over the land, but as these Heartless can't be controlled by me, it's best to be rid of them.'

"Yet they're all here because of me. Because of my actions. I finally realized it when we saw that guard post," Xion replied in a sad tone, one that ticked off Sombra even further. "Maybe if I had listened to the Maestro, or been more clever about pretending to follow his instructions, then maybe-"

"Stop that. Stop it now. Stop trying to take the credit for the evils committed by a true villain. It makes the rest of us look bad," Sombra snarled at Xion as he erupted from her pocket and took on his dark pony form, glaring into her eyes with his bright crimson ones. "Puppet, one day you're going to have to get over yourself. Not everything bad that happens is your fault."

"You've got a terrible past. You've been used and discarded by the wayside. You had to fight your best friend in a battle to the death in order to, I think at least, ensure the survival of your world. You've had it rough, but guess what? None of that was your fault either."

"How can you say that? I fought Roxas. I-"

"Fought him because you were left no other choice. Did ya kill him, even though I know you were strong enough to do so? No," Sombra told the girl, before he looked around at the rocky field they were in. 

"Maybe I just lost. Maybe he just beat me."

"Please puppet, I've seen your skills up close. You've beaten almost every foe you've come across in convincing fashion. If you really wanted to beat him, you would have," Sombra said with certainty as he began to search around, occasionally grumbling to himself on how things had changed. "But you didn't want to. Because you're a nice person. Honestly, you're the nicest person I've met."

"I'm the only person you've met, unless you've met another human before me," Xion corrected Sombra, who smirked at her response before firing a blast of magic into the ground. Nothing happened and Sombra let out a grunt before he moved on.

"My point still stands. You're nice, maybe too nice for you're own good," Sombra continued on. "But you've got that darkness in you, that pain and suffering that separates you from the ponies of this world. You've got a good chunk of light and darkness in you. That's what makes you so interesting, to me at least."

"I thought what made me interesting was that I actually listen to you, instead of acting like a sane being and chucking you into an internal abyss," Xion shot back at Sombra with a smile, getting a laugh out of the dark king. "But still, shouldn't I be doing more to help this world? Shouldn't we be taking down the Heartless and trying to stop the organization?"

"We don't...well, rather you don't have the time. Remember, your body isn't going to last forever. We need to find a way to get you fixed before we focus on the rest of the crap going on in this world," Sombra finished his thoughts, before he let out a laugh and fired a burst of magic into the ground. The ground began to shake before a massive spike made of crystal shot out of the ground, filling up the area that the two were standing in. "Finally, I thought we were never going to find it. Geez, go on the ice for a thousand years and everything moves around. Come on puppet, let's head on in."

Sombra took a few steps towards the spike before he turned around to see Xion standing in place, eyes closed and hands on her hips. As she was clearly in thought, Sombra didn't say anything until Xion opened her eyes once more. She then summoned her keyblade and pulled out Rainbow's keychain, before attaching it to her weapon.

A flash of rainbow light went off around the keyblade and when it faded away both Xion and Sombra looked at the new blade with interest. The guard of the blade resembled a building made of clouds, with two cloud pillars residing on the left and right of the handle, while the rooftop made up the upper part of the guard. The blade of the keyblade was a massive, rainbow lightning bolt, one that radiated power and crackled with electricity that struck down on the guard of the keyblade. The teeth of the keyblade was a black cloud, the source of where the rainbow lightning bolt came from.

"Wow, huge strength boots. Barely does anything for my magic, though. Thunder boost, not surprised there. And shorter than my previous blade, but not by much," Xion muttered as she swung her blade a few times to get accustomed to it, before she banished the blade and walked over towards Sombra. "Come on. We're going to fix what was done to us and then we're going to fix what was done to this world."

"You have an idea?"

"I have an idea," Xion confirmed before she and Sombra walked into the spike. Xion's eyes went wide as she looked around the room, amazed by what she was looking at. The crystals that made up the walls and floor of the spike were constantly changing colors and shifting around the room, making the place constantly change how it looked. In the center of the room was the only place where none of those colors touched the crystals, as the center of the room was a solid black circle, one that seemed to call to Xion.

"Yep, circle of darkness. Just like the circle of nothingness at the other secret base we were at, except this one is darker," Sombra said for Xion before he tapped his hoof against the ground, summoning a pair of crystal chairs out of the ground for the two to sit on. "So, what's this grand plan of yours that's going to stop the Heartless, beat the organization and put an end to the Maestro?"

"Well, I can't promise that it will do all of that, but I can stop or at the very least stem the tide of Heartless for the time being," Xion informed Sombra, who leaned forward on his hooves with interest. "And in order to do that, I've got to find the lock to this worlds heart."

"Oh, it's one of your crazy ideas, isn't it? Well, go ahead and tell me and I'll humor you to the best of my ability," Sombra promised Xion, who frowned at him.

"I'll make it simple. Every world has a heart that is found through a keyhole, which the Heartless travel through to get to the heart of a world. If I can lock that keyhole, I can prevent the Heartless from taking that world and weaken them considerably. And eventually, with enough time and effort, we should be able to get rid of the Heartless that have come to this world," Xion explained for Sombra.

"What kind of wacked out reality did you live in?" Sombra simply asked her with a shake of his head, getting Xion to frown at him. "Hearts of worlds? Nobodies? Key swords that can open any locks? Now I've had talks with Discord and I know crazy, but seriously puppet, what the hell?"

"You don't have to believe me. All you have to do is help my find the keyhole and I'll do the rest," Xion replied in a serious tone, one that made Sombra smirk. "Once our bodies are fixed, we'll have an easier time dealing with the organization and the Maestro. In fact, I've thought up a way to help us deal with the both of them."

"A second idea in a single day? My word it's a miracle," Sombra remarked.

"Oh yes and you're going to love it. We're going to find Applejack and Twilight," Xion told Sombra, an evil smile spreading across her face when she saw Sombra's face fall. "Think about it. They're the six heroes of light in this world, are they not? We'll need their help if we want to be rid of the Maestro once and for all."

"Okay, I was right. You've gone mad. I can't say I blame you, as any being stuck being next to my genius would inevitably become insane, but I thought that you would have lasted a little longer. I blame myself for being so smart. Curse me and my incredible brain and looks."

"Just shut up and listen. Not only are the six of them heroes of the light, but they're also the only ones that I've met that have keychains. Meaning that they're the ones that can help us become stronger," Xion reasoned with Sombra, who perked up an ear at her newest information. "And you've said it yourself. Twilight is the only one among them who you consider to be a threat, so she's definitely someone we'd want on our side. Besides, it's more than likely that eventually the Maestro will be after them and we'll be helping them anyway. So might as well do it now. Any flaws in my argument, oh wise ass?"

"...just this. Twilight and Applejack are more than likely to be alright with you, if our interactions with Rarity and Rainbow are to go off of, but I guarantee Celestia and Luna will try to dispose of you. Those two couldn't think their way out of a wet paper bag, let alone figure out that this girl of darkness is not their enemy. There is also the thought of the Maestro attacking us before we can get to them. For if he does, I'm afraid out little adventure will end here."

"It's a risk that we'll have to take. If he wants to I guess he could end us at any time. We'll have to move quickly," Xion decided. "You know more about them than me, so I guess you'll be leading. If you had to guess where the Applejack and Twilight would be, what would that guess be?"

"That hick Applejack is either on her farm or doing something related to her farm. She shouldn't be too hard to find. Twilight is trickery. As a princess of this land, she could be out anywhere on a mission of peace and harmony and...sorry, almost threw up there. Point being, Applejack would be the easiest to track down and then we can ask her about Twilight."

"Alright, sounds good. How far away from Applejack are we?" Xion asked, but immediately regretted doing so when Sombra let out a cackle.

"We are quiet a ways away. Three weeks if we go on foot. A week if we take a train. Either way, it will take a considerable amount of time to get there," Sombra informed Xion, who crossed her arms and waited for him to continue. "Unless, you manage to open that dark corridor that you tried to use when we first met up and then we can be there in no time flat. What do you say, puppet? Think you can manage."

"The corridor to darkness? But you told me when I first tried it that there was far too much light in this world to manage the corridor. What could have changed?" Xion asked.

"Haven't you been paying attention, puppet? There is far more darkness in this land now, thanks to the Maestro being a colossal pain in our flanks. The Heartless, the Nobodies and the organization are just some of the darkness that has arrived in this land. The rest is you."

"Me?"

"You've used more dark power than any other being in this land. Wherever you've gone, a trail of darkness has followed you. I didn't tell you at first because you would have flipped and assumed you were doing something terrible, but your mere presence here has slowly added just a little more darkness to this land of light. Another reason to keep you away from Celestia."

"I'm starting to think you have a problem with her."

"My point being is that there should be more than enough darkness in this land. Especially with the Heartless making the darkness within ponies much stronger through fear and anger," Sombra cackled as he rubbed his shadow hooves together. "The fear of the darkness increases their own darkness, thus increasing the overall darkness in this land. So the Heartless have done some good."

"So the Heartless's mere presence is filling ponies hearts with darkness. This is worse than I thought."

"No, it's not their hearts, it's the ponies themselves. That is what is filling with darkness."

"That is literally one word away from what I'm saying and makes just as much sense."

"Nope, they're totally different. And mine is the correct reasoning, of course."

"God you can be insufferable."

"Anyway, the corridor of darkness. Think you can manage summoning it now?" Sombra asked Xion, trying to change the topic. Xion gave Sombra a look telling him that they weren't done before she rose to her feet, staring into the center of the darkness that circled in the center of the room. She extended her hand and closed her eyes, focusing on both the negative memories while also drawing power from the darkness in the center. She then snapped her eyes opened and channeled the darkness into the space before her, tearing open a hole in the light and summoning a vortex of darkness.

"Wow, you actually did it," Sombra said with a whistle, before Xion let out a gasp and collapsed to her knees, beads of sweat dripping down her face as she stared at the floor. "And it seems that the doing so nearly killed you. Good to know, next time we'll wait till you're stronger. Where did you open it to?"

"I have no idea," Xion wheezed before she pushed herself back up to her feet and held a hand out towards the corridor, feeling a sense of comfort and familiarity with the corridor. "But wherever it leads is a place that is calling to me. I can feel it. On the other side of this corridor is somewhere we need to go."

"Well, if you have so much confidence in it, then you can lead the way," Sombra said as he turned and used his magic to start to gather supplies off of the shelves. "Once I've gathered up some supplies and other items that we will need, then we can go on through. Also, good job on the corridor. That's some grade A darkness right there."

"Why is it every time you praise me I just wait for the insult to come after it?"

"Because you're smart and have learned how I respond," Sombra responded before he tossed a bag to Xion and then returned to his horn form. Xion caught the bag then caught the horn, slipping it into her pocket once more. 'And Xion, remember, no matter what awaits us on the other side of this corridor, you can handle it. You are the strongest being of darkness that I've ever worked with.'

"Wow, kind words from you. Now I'm really worried."

And without another word, the two walked into the corridor of darkness and left the room empty once more. That was until another being in a black coat entered into the room, glancing around before he turned his hooded head towards the still open corridor. He stared at it for a moment before he too entered within, closing the door behind them.