Tale of the Darkness
The sky was the purest of blues, with no sign of a white cloud to ruin the perfect coloring of the sky. Birds sung a song that sounded like a spell and the slight breeze carried the song to all who wished to hear it. And the wind rustled the grass in such a way that if one looked upon it for too long, they might make the mistake of thinking that they were looking at a green sea. It was a truly a perfect day for all in the land of Equestria...except for a girl who was wearing all black and had been hiking for miles.
"So hot...coat's so heavy...sun...so bright," Xion groaned as she practically dragged herself up the side of a large hill, sweat falling from her black bangs. "Why did...such a large hill... have to be climbed on such a hot day? Argh, what I wouldn't give for the realm of darkness right now!"
'Wow, what a whiner. Were you always like this back on your world or are you being extra whiney just for me?' Sombra asked from the darkness, his lack of a physical body making him immune to any of the issues Xion was experiencing. 'Because I was trapped in ice for a thousand years and then blown up, but you don't hear me complaining about it.'
"Yes I do. All you did for the past six miles was complain about...Celestia and Luna? Was that their names?" Xion asked before having to stop and wipe her forehead with the back of her sleeve.
'Yes, those are the names of the two fools that cast me into the ice and thought that they were sealing away a monster, when I reality they were sealing away the only one that could save the world!' Sombra declared and made his horn bounce around inside of Xion's pocket.
"Really? Because from what little I've managed to get out of you, it seems like you were quite the tyrant," Xion told him.
'The winners write the history books. Whatever Celestia and Luna would say about me is entirely false, unless they talk about my devilishly handsome looks,' Sombra replied with a laugh. Xion wanted to reply, but at that moment her legs nearly gave out and she had to lean her hands on her knees to keep from falling over. 'Good lord girl, when was the last time you got any exercise? You look pathetic.'
"I'm...not really sure what's wrong with me. Ugh, this heat is unbearable. Don't know if I can keep going," Xion wheezed.
'And this is the lost soul that I placed all my chips on. Woe is me. Alright puppet, listen and listen good. You can't go down here. You need to keep going. Not just for me, though that should be your main reason, but also for you. The beach! Remember that! Remember that you need to go to it, to fulfill the promise that you and your friends never got to keep! Push onwards!'
"You're right. I can't go down here! I may be a being of darkness, but I can't let a little bit of sunlight get to me!" Xion said with confidence as she forced herself to stand up and take a step, before she collapsed face first onto the ground. "Nope. Too hot. Too tired. Can't go on."
'By the heavens you are pathetic. How the keyblade ever decided to choose you as its wielder is a mystery to me,' Sombra said in a disappointed tone. His horn began to glow in Xion's pocket and a moment later a cloud of pure darkness formed over her, blocking out the rays of the sun. Xion shook her head and forced herself to stand up, feeling better with the cloud.
"Thanks. I feel better already," she said.
'Good, because it's taking what little power I have left to muster this cloud for you. Had I known you were this weak I would have let the guards kill you and then taken the key off of your body. But now I'm stuck babysitting a talking puppet. How the mighty have fallen. Now keep moving or I may just leave you here to be consumed by the sun. Chop chop.'
"Thanks. I feel so much better," Xion grunted as she walked up the hill once more. But even with the cloud, she was aware that something was wrong, something at the edge of her mind that she couldn't figure out. Every once in a while she would glance down at her hand, trying to figure out what was ailing her.
'It's Equestria.' Xion looked down and pulled Sombra's horn out of her pocket. 'Ever wonder how the princesses managed to defeat me, despite me clearly being a superior foe?'
"No."
'It's because this land is poisonous to being likes us. Beings of the dark,' Sombra continued on, but his voice sounded far more dangerous. 'This land is naturally inclined towards the light, towards peace and harmony and all that crap. But beings like us, beings of the dark, of pain, of nothingness, well...we're never at our best here. No matter how much power we may will, the natural magic of this land will always handicap us. That is why Equestria, in its thousands of years of being, has never once fallen to darkness. Because the land itself cripples the darkness. And in turn, us.'
"So...the land itself is trying to kill us?" Xion asked, glancing up at the sun once more and suddenly not feeling as warm as she had before.
'Not exactly. See, the light and darkness are two sides of the same coin. Can't have one without the other. However, Equestria itself has been filled with so much light and "good" magic over the millennia, that it just natural drags down anything of darkness. Now that's not to say beings of darkness can't live or actually win here, but we're always at a disadvantage.'
"So maybe that was why I was feeling so weak when I was at the city of crystals," Xion pieced together.
'The Crystal Empire. That is its official name,' Sombra corrected for her. 'An empire that once belonged to yours truly. And actually, I had turned it into a place of darkness in Equestria. With my power and the power of the crystal heart, I had actually managed to bend the land to my will. I created a place where the darkness could flourish.'
"How'd you manage that?"
'While I may look like nothing more than a simple horn to you puppet, back when I had a body I was one of the most gifted and brilliant unicorns in the land. Some would even say that in terms of sheer skill and intelligence, I was greater than Star-Swirl the Bearded himself!'
Sombra emphasized his last words like they were supposed to be important, but when Xion gave him a blank stare he let out a small sigh. 'Star-Swirl? One of the greatest unicorns of all time? Respected and adored by many, despite the fact that he stole the works of others and claimed them as his own? Don't know him?'
"How would I? I literally just got here," Xion reminded Sombra. "But anyway, you were saying something about creating a place of darkness or something like that?"
'Ah yes my Crystal Empire. A place I created of darkness,' Sombra recalled with a sigh of longing before the horn seemed to grow darker in Xion's hands. 'But during my research I found something that...unsettled me. See, I found out that not just Equestria has too much light, but the rest of the world is starting to fill up with too much light. Darkness is struggling to find any footing here. And if there is a world without darkness...then we're all doomed.'
"How? Isn't less darkness a better thing?" Xion asked, so engrossed in the story that she barely noticed that she had not only reached the top of the hill but now was practically at the bottom of it. "I mean, isn't darkness evil and all that?"
'My god girl, how dumb can you be? At your age you should know better...how old are you again?'
"Well, technically I have the body of a fourteen year old, but in reality I've only been "alive" a year or so."
'Does anything you say make sense?' Sombra asked before his horn shook. 'Whatever. No, darkness is not evil just like light is not good. Both sides are neutral, but most of the time evil uses darkness as it is an easier power to access. Good, in turn, uses light as it is the natural opposite of darkness and thus can defeat it. And no, less darkness is not a better thing. Again, the coin. If one side was the vanish from the coin, what would happen?'
"I...don't know? How could you even destroy one side of a coin? I mean, as long as another side exists, there will be two sides. So if you were to destroy tails, then you'd also have to destroy..."
'Ah, now you're getting it,' Sombra said with a small chuckle. 'That is what I realized, doll. If light completely fills up this world, then the world will cease to be. Therefor, I made it my solemn duty to balance the scales and fill this world with enough darkness until it matches the light! And I tried to begin that with the Crystal Empire, until the sisters stopped me. Why they would impede my work, I will never know.'
"Because you were a lunatic and tried to wipe them off the face of the planet."
'Bah, enslave an entire nation and try to systematically exterminate another and for the rest of history your labeled as the bad guy. This is why history books are useless.'
Xion shook her head at Sombra, having long since given up ever trying to figure him out, before a sound reached her eyes that made her eyes light up. It was a whistle. A whistle that was long, clear and reminded her of something that she had always wanted to try. With a smile on her face and a new sense of energy filling up her body, she took off across the grassy fields towards the sound. She ignored Sombra's attempts to figure out what she was doing and didn't stop running until she reached the top of another hill, where she finally found the source of the sound.
At the bottom of the hill was a small train statin, at the edge of an even smaller town. From the top of the hill she could see a few ponies that gathered around the station, but at that moment all Xion could see was the train. The large, pink and gold train with seven cars that rested dead center in the tracks, with a bit of smoke coming out the stack. And in the light of the sun, it shined like a star that seemed to make Xion feel small.
'It's a train. So what?' Sombra asked. Xion's response was to let out a small squee before she started to race towards the train at full speeds and she would have run right up to it had Sombra not used what "little" power he had left to yank her hood and make her fall flat on her rear.
"OW! What the heck was that for?!" Xion yelled at Sombra while rubbing her butt.
'If it is possible for you to have a cognitive thought, I ask that you do so here! You are about to run into a town filled with ponies, beings of light! Not only that, but they won't see Xion, little innocent girl that has the intelligence of a goldfish. They'd see what the ponies in the Empire saw. A being of darkness with red eyes. Something that they should be afraid of. Something that would draw the attention of beings we do not want to tangle with right now.'
"But...I want to ride the train," Xion said in a sad voice as she gazed at the train with longing. "I've heard them back when I worked for Organization Thirteen, but I never got the chance to ride one. And it looks so cool!"
'The answer is no! Going anywhere near these ponies will not only draw unwanted attention, but dealing with their stupidity will make me want to test if I could die while stuck as a horn! We are not going!'
"But...but..." Xion whimpered as she stared down at Sombra's horn, her blue eyes watering while her frown made Sombra feel like he was looking into a pool of tears. For the longest time he stared up at her without uttering a sound, before eventually he let out a growl of surrender.
'FINE! You want to ride the train so freaking badly, then we can ride the train! But if we get caught, it's your damn fault!' Sombra roared.
"Yay!" Xion cried out in happiness before she pocketed Sombra and raced down towards the tracks.
'But you're not going to be seen. Listen to me and listen well! The caboose on these trains are never guarded. If you must sneak on, and I know you must, you'll want to go in through there,' Sombra instructed, irritated that now Xion was listening to him. 'Also, as this is a small town. I doubt that there will be any ponies in the last car. But make sure you look before you-HEY!'
Sombra's cry was ignored as Xion reached the caboose of the train, glancing around quickly to make sure that she wasn't seen before she hopped onto the back. She reached the door on the back and tried to pull it open, but to her annoyance she found that it was locked.
"Please, it will take more than that to stop me," Xion grumbled as she summoned her keyblade, glancing around to make sure no ponies were looking before using her key to unlock the door. She slipped inside of the train and closed the door behind her, locking it once more before turning towards the car with a massive smile on her face.
'Wow, in the two days that I've known you I have never seen you this happy. And you've had me for company the entire time,' Sombra noticed but if Xion heard him she didn't show it. She practically skipped to the next car, opening the door a crack so she could look inside.
"The cost is clear," she whispered to Sombra before she ran inside, throwing herself onto one of the seats and laughing happily as she bounced up and down.
'Keep the noise down! Alright, you've had your fun. You've ridden the train and now we should-'
A loud whistle cut Sombra off and a few moments later all the doors slammed shut. Xion's smile managed to grow even wider as the conductor let out a shout and a minute later the train started to move.
'Xion, we need to get off this train! Do you have any idea where it's going?!' Sombra asked Xion, who replied with a huge smile.
"Nope! But I can't wait to find out!" Xion laughed before looking out the window. The moment the two was gone from her view she lowered her window and stuck her head out of it, the laugh that escaped her lips being caught by the wind. Her hair whipped around her hair while her hood flapped in the breeze, but the smile that Xion wore on her face could not be moved.
'Ugh. She's more trouble than she's worth,' Sombra said with a shake of his horn.
======
XIII
======
Sombra sat in the seat across from the puppet, who was fast asleep and leaning her head against the window. Sombra looked up at the down the girl, not sure what to make of her. He had spent most of his time with her in her pocket, so it was his first chance to see who, or what, she really was.
Thanks to him invading her mind he could now see her black hair and blue eyes, but if he didn't concentrate very hard her face would return to that of a mannequin, devoid of all features. He still couldn't figure out how the heart was supposed to change how she looked, but at the moment he couldn't think of anything else that could explain it, aside from magic.
'But it's not magic, that much I can tell,' Sombra thought to himself, staring at Xion's face, who was now drooling slightly in her sleep. 'Nothing about her, aside from the few spells she cast, is magic. But then what is she? Even my magic, which is the best in the land, can't even sense her. It's like...she doesn't exist. And according to her story, she's not supposed to. Yet here she is, sleeping right in front of me. So what the hell is going on?'
'Who are you, Xion?' Sombra asked Xion, knowing that she wouldn't answer him. 'And why do you carry a weapon that I cannot fathom?'
Any further questions Sombra had were silenced when the trains brakes let out a loud screech and the train came to a sudden stop. Sombra was instantly on alert, whereas Xion let out a mumble before going back to slumberland. Sombra kept his senses on high alert (and how he had senses as a horn he had stopped asking a long time ago), wondering what would cause the train to stop. And then he heard it. The screaming.
'Xion! Something's going on! You need to wake up!' Sombra roared at Xion, but her only response was to grumble something that sounded like "Roxas" before she turned over and smiled. 'Alright, puppet, you forced me to do this. Don't blame me later.'
A blast of dark magic erupted from Sombra's horn and caught Xion right above the eye. The girl let out a yelp and sat up in her seat, eyes wide with confusion as she looked around.
"Sombra? What happened?" she asked while stifling a yawn, looking out the window at the setting sun.
'We're in danger and I don't know from what,' Sombra explained quickly before the both of them heard screaming. In an instant Xion scooped up Sombra and ran to the car door, kicking it off of its hinges with strength Sombra didn't know she had before leaping out. She hit the ground and raise her head, only for her eyes to go wide at what she was.
Sombra had done many terrible things in his life. What he was witnessing at that moment scared ever him. Swarming all around them and the passengers from the train were dozens of little, black creatures that weren't much smaller than the ponies. The only discernible feature that they had was their bright yellow eyes, eyes devoid of any and all emotion. But that wasn't what scared Sombra. It was what they were doing.
A mare screamed off to their side before she was cut down by the claws of one of the creatures. As she fell though, her body seemed to vanish into darkness and a moment later a heart, or her heart, as Sombra assumed, floated in place. Then the heart was swallowed by darkness and a moment later another one of the black creatures took its place among its brethren. And it was only the first of many, as more and more passengers fell to the overwhelming numbers.
'Xion? What in the twelve circles of Tartarus are those things?' Sombra asked with fear in his voice.
"Those Sombra, are the Heartless," Xion replied grimly before she summoned her keyblade. The moment the blade appeared, every one of the shadow creatures turned to face her, their blank eyes all glued to her. She slipped Sombra into her pocket before grabbing the blade with both hands and taking up a stance, right before all the heartless lunged for her.
"And it's my job to slay them."
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Wow...this version of Sombra really is full of himself.
And... cue fight scene!
Yeah that is true. history is written by the victors
Yes fear the heartless but don't let the that fear control you or you will be consumed sooner or later.
So this version of Sombra is like Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (the same way he is manipulating Xion like MX did to Terra)... I hope he doesn't plan to possess Xion
Now that the Heartless have touched this land, they will only fester and grow stronger. Let us hope that the dark hearted don't try to experiment and forge their own Heartless. So far, we've only seen Shadows; one of the few 'Pureblood type' of Heartless. But if we start seeing Emblems, that will not be a good sign.
Hey, I can't help but notice some errors. So I took the time to isolate the ones that I noticed for you. So far I'm enjoying the story and quick update speed. Keep up the good work
beings like
That should be ears
that should be station
Two should be town and the second hair should be head
needs an apostrophe: train's
when I reality they were sealing away the only one
If one side was the vanish from the coin
Therefor, I made it my solemn duty to
and for the rest of history your labeled as the bad guy
1. In.
2. To.
3. Therefore.
4. You're.
Whether this Sombra may be insane, evil, or actually good...ish, I do agree on this point.
I am loving this take on Xion. :) Still hoping for Xion to encounter other non mane 6 ponies. :)
I forget, when heartless are slain, the hearts go back, right? Or are they just gone for good.
8143346
Just because he is correct on one point doesn't mean he isn't evil and insane. If I were to try an work on that balance, Luna would probably be the best choice, not going all evil megalomaniac overlord.
8148621
Depends on what kills the Heartless. If it is a keyblade it kinda goes off to somewhere..... not sure where anymore after the events of KH2. Anything that isn't a keyblade the heart is still tied to the darkness, so it disappears into the Realm of Darkness to reform back into a Heartless. So of it is not a keyblade that destroys a Heartless it is only a temporary measure to destroy one.
Awww, this Xion is adorable.
There are twelve circles in Tartarus? I only heard about the nine circles.
8197116 i know a lot of tartarus, ive read about it, but ive never heard of the nine circles of tartarus, much less twelve.
8210465
Think nine levels of purgatory/hell.
8142537
He's also a bad liar. He's not some misunderstood outcast like Xion actually is, he's an egomaniacal dictator in the same vein as Ganon or Doctor Doom. Unless this world has a completely different story to the main canon, cause fanfic writers tend to do that. He may be right in the KH canon that Darkness can be used for good or evil, but it's clear that wasn't how he was using it, nor was he "bringing balance". In KH2 they literally stated that the dark/light balance thing works itself out in the long run.