It had been a few hours that he'd been flying as the Crystal Empire was quite far away. Not too long ago, he was at Canterlot to be sent to Crystal Empire because the Captain of the Royal Guard wanted to see him. He thought it was a odd request to send him all the way here for questioning. He kept to himself, however. He just wanted to be away from the now pissed off Rainbow Dash. He still had the picture in his pocket. She looks so weird in a Maid's outfit.
But to the stallions, that was definite... something material that I'm not going into. She looked hot for Stallions eyes, in Cole's, she looked plain fruity. It was really tight around her which showed off her "toned" body. Cole couldn't tell the difference between toned and normal. She just seemed a bit more tiny than usual ponies. Besides Pegasi anyway. He finally saw the crystalline kingdom in the distance.
His jaw dropped at the sight. The beams of light cast by the sun shined and beamed off the crystal kingdom and created a euphoria of colors. It looked like staring at a rainbow constantly. He squinted his eyes and stared away from it. Shortly after, he landed in the kingdom. And was greeted by more guards. Holding spears. Crap, he thought as he got out. To be honest, the guards were surprised at his height but they kept their composure and led him to the main castle where he was greeted by the Captain's and the Princess' personal guards and they had magic.
"Here we are, Conduit. Through this door." The guards backed off and motioned for him to enter. He did as motioned for, he entered. He was surprised to see this Princess Cadence. Pink. So. Much. PINK. She was apparently the Princess of Love or something like that.
"Hello there. You must be Cole." She greeted him.
"You know, you're a sight for sore eyes." He joked, she sighed and smiled.
"Shiny is a little too overwhelming about that, sorry. Anyway, welcome to the Crystal Empire and I hope you'll enjoy as I think Shiny plans on keeping you here for a bit."
"As long as I'm not cooped up, I hate being cooped up. Speaking of 'Shiny', here he is." Cole raised his hand and Cadence turned around.
"There you are, Conduit." He greeted roughly.
"Really dear? You know what, I'm going to go get some tea. Want any?"
"That would be nice." Cole raised his hand, she nodded and left. "You're wife is nice. I like her. In a platonic sense. I know she's your wife. So, what do you want from me anyway?"
"Answers."
"Okay. A little vague. Where do you want to start?"
"How did you get here?" And interrogation began. Every question that Shining asked, Cole answered.
"Well how about- Actually, that's it." Cole stopped sipping his tea as he stopped firing questions.
"Done?"
He sighed annoyingly. "Yes."
"What was this about anyway?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because, I'm trying to help. Hopefully fill the holes I've created in my past." Cole stated.
"What do you mean?" Shining asked.
"First, what I say must never leave this room. Not even to your wife. If I explain it, you tell me why you asked me all these questions. Deal?"
"Deal."
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm no hero. I've killed innocents. "Shining stared at him, slack-jawed. "I've only wanted power and do that, I killed anyone that got in my way. I chose the wrong choices and ended the lives of so many. Shining, I wanted to reform. Turn over a new leaf, be the hero for once in my life to know what it like to loved, looked up to." Cole looked looked sad and gritted his teeth. "I killed my own friend for fucks sake! I killed millions to save thousands." Cole paused to take a moment.
"When I came to Equestria, there was still purity in this world. Hope, kindness and friendship. When Discord came and started chaos, it hit me deep. I felt as if he was me. He was going to cause little, innocent amounts of chaos at at first but I knew it would become destruction one day. I knew he had to go and he must be defeated even if it cost me my life. That's right, for the first time in forever, I risked my life to save them all. What I've done - can never be forgiven. I know I'm still going to burn in the pits of whatever type of Hell there is. I at least want to ease the pain. That's why I want to help, Sir. To right my wrongs...be a hero." Cole sighed and sat down. Shining stared at him, feeling sad for him.
"I like you Cole." He raised his eyebrow at him. "Do you know why? You admitted you were wrong. If you want to be a hero, that's the first steps. You can try again, trust me." Shining smiled at him and Cole lightly smiled in return. "Now, my end of the deal. You see, these large black crystals have appeared outside of the Crystal Empire. They're filled with small concentrations of dark magic. That kind of magic can only belong to-"
"King Sombra." His wife finished his sentence. "A evil ruler that plunged this kingdom into darkness. They were scared of their leader and never tried to overthrow him. This kept up until Princess Celestia finally ended it. We fixed this with the Crystal Heart, a embodiment of pure love. He was defeated by our hooves and almost forgotten about. But now, I swear I hear his quiet laughing."
"I'll help you." Cole stated. "If I'm going to be here for a bit, I'm going to help. Trust me, you'll need assistance."
"Alright. Shiny, prepare a chariot. We're heading out."
"Right." The husband walked off, fetching the guards.
"I overheard you earlier." Cadence admitted. "I was at first hesitant to believe that. You seem like such a nice person from first glance and then..."
"Yeah. Good on the outside, evil on the inside. I'm here to try and correct it."
"I know you will." She smiled and Cole smiled with her. And the adventure began, they headed off towards these crystals. Staring down from below, Cole shuddered at the coldness, feeling the flames inside him extinguish. He felt something inside him shrivel up and die, but he ignored the feeling. They arrived to the location, shortly. As they said, large jet black crystals jutted up from the grounds, creaking cracks around them. Cole walked up to them and felt the evil literally emanating off it. It was cold like ice and made him shudder at the slightest touch.
"So, this is pure evil. "Cole stared at the large crystal, arms crossed. "It's...underwhelming, honestly."
"This is just a fraction of his power. Be wary." They began walking around, examining the large black stalagmite. Cole then felt something underneath the ponies. He threw them out of the way with Kinetic Pulse and watched as a humongous black crystal rammed upwards, creating a literal spike of darkness.
"Whoa. Thanks, Cole."
"Yeah, I felt that. Like...something is underneath us. Something that's creating them, we gotta get underground." Cole stated.
"We could get the Mining Squadron." The accompanying guard informed.
"Yes. Get them, we need them." The Guard stared at the couple and they nodded to confirm the order. He then took off , flying away. "While they're doing that..." He dropped to his knees and placed his hand on the ground, feeling for disturbances. As he thought, tiny vibrations echoed throughout the snowy ground. "As I thought. Something IS underground. And we're gonna find out what." He kept his hand firm on the ground as he heard another chariot arrive. He turned his head to see furry dog-human creatures.
"What are they?"
"Diamond Dogs." Cadence spoke up. "They are beings who lived their entire life underground. They make unbelievable mines and dig jewels. We recently recruited them into our army after being promised more jewels."
"They intelligent?"
"Yes, they can speak but they lack proper grammar." The Guard began talking and the Dogs nodded and began working to Cole's astonishment. His jaw was agape at the speed of their digging. "This is how we dig, nowadays." Cadence chuckled.
"Princess! We find something!" One of the Dogs speak up, they stare down the hole as a Dog brings up a dark jewel, coated in a dark haze. "Feel really cold. Me no like."
"It's okay. It's what we're looking for." Cole bends down to pick up the jewel. He grabbed it and suddenly, he felt cold. He shuddered but kept examining it. He charged up electricity to his palm and then, it shatters, sending dull pieces of crystal everywhere. "So, that's how they keep popping up. Look." He pointed towards the pieces as they sink into the ground. Seconds later, multiple black crystals popped up in their place. "The crystals explode from the heat down there and keep creating more crystals. How many are down there is the million dollar question."
"Sombra's 'banishment' must of caused this." Shining declared. Cole nodded and stood back up.
"Exactly. We need to get more diggers out here. We need to get these crystals out of the ground. Alright, we got a job to do."
"Men, you will listen to Cole from now on as well as us. He asks you something or gives you a order, you follow it or risk the Dungeon. Got it?" Salutes. "Good. Cole, we'll get more and you keep this up."
"Over and Out. Alright, let's do this."
As the day passed by, more and more jewels were collected and stored before they could create more. Just as they were going to continue after taking a small break, Cole noticed the sun low in the sky. He sighed and turned towards the soldiers and the dogs.
"We're gonna stop for today. It's getting late and I'm starting to lose heat. But tomorrow, I want to get ponies out here to help the dogs get more of these crystals. Let's get inside, alright?"
"Yes sir!" They all filed out of the mine as they headed back towards the castle, tired from today's work.